
Glass 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



ORGANIZING THE 
SMALLER SUNDAY SCHOOL 



Organizing the 
Smaller Sunday School 



A Study in Grading 



By 

Lester Bradner, Ph.D. 

Director of the Department of Parochial Education 
General Board of Religious Education 



Milwaukee 

The Young Churchman Co. 

1917 



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copyright by 

The Young Churchman Co. 

1917 





JUL 23 1917 



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CIA 4 70374 
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PREFACE 

Will you do me the favor, kind reader, of glancing 
over this list of questions, which were once used at a 
Conference on the Small School ? 

Does a small Sunday School interest children? 
How far is the growth of a mission influenced by its 

Sunday School? 
What type of Sunday School suffers the most 

changes of administration? 
In what respects is a small Sunday School essen- 
tially different from a large Sunday School. 
What is the usual ratio of small to large schools? 
What principles should determine how a small 

school is divided into classes ? 
Can boys and girls be kept together in small school 

classes ? 
Should pupils in a small school be "promoted" ? 
How long should a pupil in a small school remain 

under the same teacher? 
What is the best improvement in a small school ? 
Can graded lessons be used in a small school? 
How should teacher training be carried on ? 
Can a small school afford to have the best material ? 
What special efforts should be made to render a small 

school attractive? 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

Must all the classes of a small school meet at the 

same time? 
How can you draw a picture of a small school? 
Can we have a diocesan system for small schools ? 
Who has written anything especially concerning 

small schools? 

If you find yourself truly concerned about any of 
these queries, then I may rightly urge you to read 
further in this little book, for in it I have striven to 
answer most of them, even though incompletely. If, 
however, your real interest has not been caught by any 
of them, this essay is not meant for you, and you had 
best pass it by — at least at present. 

Should you persist, under this warning, in going 
forward, I owe it to you to say that Part II, as distin- 
guished from Part I, is only for such as have patience 
to plod through details and to go beneath the surface 
of the subject. If you attempt to put Part I into prac- 
tice, I believe you will find help in Part II. If your 
object is merely the simpler ideas, on paper, do not 
weary yourself by going beyond Part I. This much I 
would say to keep you my friend. 

For the rest, I hope you share my belief that the 
Church must put forth its best efforts where conditions 
are most difficult. For the large Sunday School, under 
the usual conditions, there is plenty of guidance already 
in print, and many are ready to put suggestions in 
practice. For the small school few have spoken. My 
hope is to start a pioneer enterprise by means of 
this discussion. 

There are many who hold that a small Sunday 

vi 



Preface 

School is just a large Sunday School pared down, and 
in consequence they feel under no necessity to give 
especial attention to the small school; or even to 
acknowledge that it has peculiar problems of its own. 

In answer to such a position it should suffice to ask, 
"Can the graded lessons be used in a school with five 
teachers?" Obviously it is impossible to have perhaps 
twelve courses in use by five teachers at the same time. 
The only possible answer to our question is, "No, the 
graded lessons cannot be used in a small school in the 
usual way" But this very admission that if used at 
all they must be handled in other than the usual fashion 
reveals that the small school has a problem of its own. 
In fact, it has many which are peculiar to itself. 

My contention is that the small school can be con- 
ducted on what amounts to a graded plan, that it can 
be so organized as to make use of the graded lessons in 
its own way. If this be not true, then the small school 
must be shut out from taking advantage of the best 
products of the present era of Sunday School advance. 
Our best writers are engaged in producing graded work. 
Our best systems presuppose the principle of grading. 
Must the small school be content to use something else 
which is second best, and to remain organized under an 
antiquated theory ? 

The main object, then, of this little book, is to show 
how the smaller schools can be so organized as to make 
use of the best graded material and run with the same 
efficiency as the larger schools. Let me express the 
hope that if I have not succeeded in indicating the 
right path along which this happy result may be 
obtained, I may at least stimulate someone else to dis- 

vii 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

cover and develop a solution. The Church must not 
rest satisfied until the solution is found. 

Those who approach this essay from the point of 
view of the public schools will be disappointed that I 
have used the age-years rather than the grade nomen- 
clature. This, however, seemed an expedient concession 
to such as were not in the habit of thinking in terms of 
public school grades. 

Lester Bradner. 

New York, April, 1917. 



vm 



CONTENTS 

Preface 
PART I. The General Plan For a Smaller School 
Chapter 



I. 


The Strategic Value of the 






Small School. 


3 


II. 


Analyzing the Situation in 






a Small School. 


7 


III. 


Problems of Grouping: Sex 






and Promotion. . . . 


12 


IV. 


The Cycle Plan as a Solu- 






tion 


15 


V. 


The Teaching Material. . 


23 


VI. 


Training the Teacher in 






the Small School. . 


28 


VII. 


Officers and their Duties. 


39 


Till. 


Changing to the New Plan. 


45 


IX. 


Financing the Small School. 


49 


X. 


Making the School Attrac- 






tive 


55 


XI. 


Literature Dealing with the 






Small School. 


63 



PART II. Details of the Plan 

Chapter XII. Modifications of Standard 

Cycles for Local Needs. 69 

XIII. Some Illustrations of 

Teacher Training. . . 77 

XIV. Studying the Small School. 91 
XV. Possible Lines of Special 

Experiment. . . . . 108 

IX 



ORGANIZING THE 
SMALLER SUNDAY SCHOOL 

PART I 
The General Plan 



CHAPTER I 

The Strategic Value of the Small School 

Is the success of the small Sunday School a vital 
factor in the progress of the Church? But the small 
Sunday School, as a rule, is anything but a success. It 
lacks teachers, equipment, and enthusiasm. Its very 
smallness seems to be an obstacle to growth. Could we, 
on the other hand, give vitality and enthusiasm to the 
school, would it not grow, and would it not make the 
Church grow, too ? 

Supposing all small schools could be made successful, 
consider what it would mean for the Church. 

First of all, do not parishes usually increase the 
number of their youth more rapidly than that of their 
adults? And children bring their elders after them. 
Many a parish of to-day was started as a Sunday School 
yesterday. The successful school is the very best feeder 
which a parish can have, the surest promise of a larger 
congregation. Moreover, the message of a Church, all 
things considered, is best presented through its handling 
of child life. If, according to our Lord's precept, "by 
their fruits ye shall know them," we look for results in 
life as a testimony, the surest attainment of parochial 
results in life is not among adults, where impressions 
are hard to produce, but in child-life, where all is 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

plastic. And the fruits of religion in childhood and 
youth are a mighty and eloquent sermon to mature life. 
Any religious body represented in a community by a 
strong, efficient Sunday School is bound to win adher- 
ents and exert influence, no matter what the size of the 
school may be. 

Moreover, we tend to forget that schools of less than 
one hundred pupils far outnumber the schools of over 
that number. It would surprise most people to learn 
that there are more schools in the diocese of New York 
of under 100 pupils than of 100 and over, yet such was 
very recently the case. Even in such an old established 
diocese as Rhode Island, forty-five per cent. (29 out of 
65) of the schools in 1915 were under 100 pupils, and 
comprised seven per cent, of the total pupils. In 
Eastern Oklahoma (missionary diocese) in 1915 the 
small schools numbered 22 out of a total of 24, and 
comprised about seventy-five per cent, of the total pupils. 

The District Policy for Missionary Administration 

All this, if true, has an important bearing on the 
domestic missionary policy of the Church. In many 
parts of the country we are represented by chains of 
weak and struggling mission stations. What is their 
promise for the future ? It may be clearly judged, as a 
rule, from the conditions obtaining in the Sunday 
schools belonging to those same missions. Are these 
schools weak and helpless ? Then it will be many years 
before the Church will gain a hold in that section of 
the country. Are they strong and vigorous? Then 
there is hope for the future of the Church in that 



The Strategic Value of the Small School 

locality. The condition of the Sunday School is an 
index. Its welfare is strategic. 

Consider again the plight of an archdeacon in charge 
of a number of small schools. Must each of them be 
organized and managed on a separate plan, and all of 
them be weak, in addition? If so, his largest task is 
really not to see that there are clergy enough to hold 
services, but to secure sufficient number of workers to 
keep the Sunday Schools running. Too often each 
frequent change of a missionary means a change of 
Sunday School policy, and the absence of a clergyman 
results in the breakdown of the school. Suppose, on 
the contrary, that each Sunday School in the arch- 
deaconry is organized upon the same standard plan, 
with the same system of work, and supervised by the 
archdeacon, not therefore totally dependent upon the 
missionary sent to hold services. Then it may be pos- 
sible for the archdeacon to train a corps of workers to 
conduct the Sunday Schools of his district according 
to this uniform plan, to fill vacancies on call, and to 
keep the system and the school moving on, independent 
of clerical change in any one mission station. Is there 
any question but that such a system would be a build- 
ing force for the Church in his district? 

The Possibility of Standard Units 

Our need, not merely in an archdeaconry, but the 
whole Church over, is for a simple, workable, effective 
plan for the small school, sufficiently elastic to admit 
of local adaptation, yet sufficiently uniform to allow all 
small schools to operate upon a single, well-understood 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

system, for which lay men and women could be trained 
in considerable numbers. 

This suggests at once a system with certain standard 
units — each applied under similar circumstances, with 
well-understood types of modification to meet local 
needs. It is the purpose of this pamphlet to show that 
such a system can be devised and is practicable. 



CHAPTER II 

Analyzing the Situation in a Small School 

The Weak Spot 

Why is the small Sunday School so often uninter- 
esting and inefficient? Some attribute it to the teach- 
ers, some to the lessons, some to the mere fact of its 
smallness. But the crucial point is whether the school 
elicits the interest of the child. Nobody can make an 
enthusiastic school out of uninterested children. Inter- 
est, however, is not the result of numbers, but the cause 
of them. Leaders who will employ right methods will 
create interest whether the school numbers ten or a 
hundred. The problem of interesting the child in the 
small school is primarily a question of the number and 
capability of teachers. Lessons are a secondary con- 
sideration. 

All things considered, the weakest spot in the small 
school is probably its teaching force. There may be 
devotion, and yet no capability. There may be teachers, 
and yet they may lack insight. 

That inferior teachers are left in charge is not 
seldom due to frequent changes of administration. 
The minister in charge of a small parish is apt not to 
be a fixture. He is seeking a larger field and finds it, 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

moving on after a brief pastorate. His stay is not long 
enough to enable him to look ahead. He scarcely under- 
stands the present before he is gone. He has hardly had 
time to begin training teachers against future need. 
He has perhaps not even discovered the want of capacity 
among the existing staff. Not infrequently, the whole 
conduct of the school is changed with each new in- 
cumbent. New material is introduced, new aims are 
established, teachers are confused, discouraged. They 
drop out if they can, and the vacancy is filled by the first 
person who can be prevailed upon to take up the burden. 
Experience with all its values is lost. The rapid changes 
in clerical control have worked serious harm. Were a 
standard plan, instead of an individual experiment, in 
operation, the losses in the teaching force would cer- 
tainly be less, and its gains might be greater. It is 
quite natural that the small Sunday School should be 
weak in teachers. This being the case, however, our 
remedy lies in giving greater attention to the situation. 

How to Measure Small Schools 

The teacher is not merely the key to improvement 
but the real measure of the small school. One may ask 
what is a small school, and the answer would probably 
be that a small Sunday School is one which has twenty, 
or forty, or seventy-five pupils. We ought to say, a 
small Sunday School is one which has three teachers, 
or four teachers, or six teachers, or eight teachers. In 
other words, our measurements should be in terms of 
teachers, not pupils, because it is the supply of teachers, 
as well as their quality, which determines, in a very 

8 



Analyzing the Situation in a Small School 

large degree, the strength of the school. There was 
once a small school which started with five teachers and 
five pupils. But it grew rapidly because there was 
teaching power present, while many schools which start 
with twenty pupils and two teachers do not grow, be- 
cause the teaching power of the school is low, 

The Division into Classes 

Consider the matter in diagram form. There is a 
certain period in the life of each pupil which it is the 
purpose of the Sunday School by all means to cover 
with definite and systematic religious teaching. This 
period, we may say, is roughly from five to eighteen 
years of age. 

5— r 14 Years of Each Child's Life .—18 



Let us admit that, in passing through this period, the 
child needs to be taught a considerable number of 
different subjects, in order to equip him thoroughly for 
his life as a Christian and Churchman. It is a mistake 
to suppose that every teacher must move with a single 
group of pupils all the way through this sequence of 
subjects. It is far more effective to divide this period 
of years among such teachers as are available, giving 
each the chance to become more efficient in the teach- 
ing of the particular period to which he is assigned. 
We may then assume that this line of 14 years will be 
broken by as many teachers as the small school can 
command, which, of course, is not many. Our line 
would then appear in this form: 

5 — | Teacher A | Teacher B| Teacher C| Teacher D| Teacher E. — 18 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

The next question is, what years of this age line shall 
be assigned to the different teachers available. The 
answer is determined principally by the number of 
teachers, but there perhaps is a certain number neces- 
sary for the effective administration. It may be that a 
school will have to be administered by two persons 
because no more can be secured, and therefore one 
teacher must take the group of ages, say, from 5 to 10, 
and the other the remaining group. This, of course, is 
unfortunate, and ineffective from the pedagogical point 
of view. Were there five persons capable of teaching, 
the fourteen years included might be divided among 
them mostly in threes. 

Let it be understood that in speaking here and else- 
where of ages the writer understands that the figure 
used is approximate; the corresponding public school 
grade may be substituted for the age figure without 
affecting the argument or the plan. 

The main question, then, in grouping of pupils in a 
small school is the number of possible teachers, or, in 
other words, the number of necessary divisions. Au- 
thorities agree that the greatest efficiency would be 
obtained if each year could be handled by itself. This 
being plainly impossible in a small school, we must reach 
the nearest possible adjustment to the ideal. The prin- 
ciple, however, is plain. The teacher remains in charge 
of the same group of ages; the pupils move from teacher 
to teacher at certain ages. 

Evidently then, the determining factor in a small 
school is not the number of pupils, whether twenty, 
fifty, or eighty, but the question of the number of 
teachers available to put in charge of the groups. Let 

10 



Analyzing the Situation in a Small School 

us then agree that the smaller schools shall be spoken 
of as five-teacher schools, seven-teacher schools, or nine- 
teacher schools, as the case may be. And let us bring 
ourselves into the habit of thinking of all smaller schools 
in terms of teachers instead of terms of pupils. 



11 



CHAPTER III 
Problems of Grouping 

Keeping the Sexes Together 

We have become so accustomed to separating the 
sexes in all Sunday School classes (above the Primary, 
at least) that there is a natural tendency to consider 
this imperative. In most public education, however, 
there is no separation of sex by classes. Since the 
application of religious truth is often made by means 
of concrete illustrations to the circumstances in which 
pupils live, and to their more intimate experiences, it 
may be desirable, in a general way, to teach the sexes 
separately. But the advantages are not sufficient to 
outweigh the consequent shortage of teachers in a small 
school. The point at which it is more important to 
separate the sexes, provided plenty of teachers can be 
had, is the range of 13 to 15 years of age. The next 
most important point is from 10 to 12. More advantage 
can be gained by making the division of sexes in these 
years than either earlier or later. But where rigid 
economy of teachers is a necessity it is better to keep 
the sexes together than to lengthen the stretch of ages in 
one class. 

When the question is raised as to how a group of 

12 



Problems of Grouping 

fifteen or twenty children, boys and girls, from 10 to 15 
years of age, should be divided between only two teach- 
ers, the answer has generally been, in practice, that one 
teacher, A, should take the boys, and another teacher, 
B, the girls. Or in diagram form : 



10 II 12 13 14 15 



Division 




Jeacher A. 



Jeacher B. 



Figure 1 — Usual Method of Dividing the Sexes. 



On the other hand, the following division which dis- 
regards the sex is far more advantageous : 




Teacher A. Jeacher B. 

Figure 2 — Better Division — Sexes Together. 

13 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

The Promotion of Pupils 

When it is once determined how many teachers are 
available for the small school, and which age-years or 
grades each teacher shall cover, it is understood that 
every child shall step forward into the age or grade 
group to which he belongs at the beginning of each 
new school year. John, for instance, being nine years 
old and in grade IV of the public school, is in the 
Sunday School class which Miss B teaches and which 
includes children of 7, 8, and 9. But in the early sum- 
mer he becomes 10 years old, or is promoted in the public 
school to grade V. When Sunday School reopens in 
September, John should enter the next higher Sunday 
School class, which may be Miss C's, and may include 
children of 10, 11, and 12 years. 

If Mary, however, being ten, or in grade V, is under 
Miss C in Sunday School, she is not promoted to Miss 
D's class the following year, but stays with Miss 
until she is 13, or in grade VII. In other words, the 
only pupils to be promoted in any particular year are 
those who cross the age or grade line of their group 
into the age or grade of the next higher group. 

In practice, this means that Miss B will always have 
in her group all the 7, 8, and 9-year-olds (or grades II, 
III, and IV) and Miss C will always have children of 
the next three ages or grades. Not every child will be 
promoted every year. 



14 



CHAPTER IV 
The Cycle Plan as a Solution 

If the number of ages or grades assigned to any one 
teacher depends upon the number of teachers available 
for the whole school, it is evident that a number of 
different types of teaching organization will be neces- 
sary. Can these be so arranged as to form a well- 
understood system, generally applicable and easy "to 
manage? It is our belief that such a system is pos- 
sible and not difficult of comprehension, that it will 
add greatly to the efficiency, the unification, and the 
progress of all Sunday School work. The key to this 
system lies in what we call the cycle plan of organiza- 
tion. 

Let us call any group of ages or grades permanently 
assigned to one teacher a cycle. This means that if 
Miss B has ages 7, 8, and 9, she keeps to this same age 
series. She teaches a three-year cycle over and over. 
If Miss C has only ages 10 and 11, and teaches over and 
over again within this range, she has a two-year cycle. 
Miss B teaches three subjects in succession — one each 
year — and then goes back to repeat. Miss C teaches two 
subjects in succession, one each year, and then goes 
back. We may illustrate this as follows : 

15 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 
\*i year- \* >W 

miss 





Figure 3 



Figure 4 



A. The Three- Year Cycle 

It is generally felt that the largest number of years 
that can be included in one group, without serious 
detriment to at least some pupils in the group, is three 
years. Imagine, for instance, a group of children vary- 
ing in age through the space of five different age years. 
Supposing the group contained children of 10, 11, 12, 
13, and 14 years, what kind of a course shall the 
teacher be set to teach ? Evidently, whatever be chosen 
and whatever method of teaching be applied, there will 
be a misfit at one end of the line or the other; either the 
10-year-old will be favored in the presentation, in which 
case the 14-year-old will certainly not receive his due, 
educationally speaking; or the presentation will be in 
accord with the age of 13-14 and the 10-year-olds will 
suffer correspondingly. Many feel that an easy solution 
can be had by advising the teacher to strike an average 
and teach the 12-year-olds, but this in effect is to injure 
both the 10-year-olds and the 14-year-olds from the 
pedagogical point of view. It is plain that we cannot 
wisely handle so many years at once. What is the limit 

16 



The Cycle Plan as a Solution 

in this respect? A year by itself is the ideal, as we 
have stated above. The necessity of the school turns us 
back from this ideal. How far shall we, under ordinary 
circumstances, allow ourselves to diverge from this? 
Surely not further than to put three years in a group. 
Even this is far from satisfactory, yet it is within the 
limits of most small school capacities. 

The three-year-cycle plan means, then, that Teacher 
B will teach in 1917 a certain course which we may call 
Course I. In 1918 Teacher B will teach Course II, in 
1919 Teacher B will teach Course III, in 1920 the 
return will be made to Course I, and this round will be 
kept up. Meantime there come into the group, taught 
by Teacher B, at the beginning of every year, the 
7-year-olds promoted from a lower cycle. At the close 
of each year Teacher B will promote from her group 
the 9-year-olds to the succeeding cycle. This means 
that Teacher B will perhaps always have in the group 
7-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and 9-year-olds, no matter 
whether the subject taught may happen to be Course I, 
or Course II, or Course III. 

It is a just criticism upon the Three- Year Cycle 
that if Course III is good for 9-year-olds it can hardly 
be good for 7-year-olds, and that if Course I is good for 
7-year-olds, conversely it is less valuable for 9 -year-olds. 
This we must admit. It is part of the misfortune of a 
school which by reason of circumstances has so few 
teachers as to make the three-year-cycle imperative. 
Some adjustment can be gained by the modification 
described on pp. 20-22, but this is not a complete remedy. 
Unquestionably, it is worth all our effort to avoid the 
three-year cycle in favor of a shorter cycle if possible. 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 



tq 



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« O i 



J *C 



02 



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Yet it is not always possible, and we 
must face conditions as they are. The 
fact is that there are hundreds, if not 
thousands, of schools throughout the 
Church which seem unable to secure 
more than four or five teachers. 

If, now, our small school runs on 
the three-year-cycle plan, with pupils 
from 4 to 18 years of age, it may be 
represented as in Figure 5. 

We may call this the Standard 
Plan for a Three- Year- Cycle School. 
It means that the school is a "five- 
teacher" school. The number of 
pupils in it is not a matter of impor- 
tance, so far as the classification or 
operation of the school goes. If there 
were but three pupils to a teacher the 
whole school would number fifteen, 
obviously, but if each teacher aver- 
aged ten pupils the school could carry 
fifty pupils under this organization. 

There is little question as to what 
constitutes the most important im- 
provement for a small school. It is 
the addition of another teacher to the 
staff. Every time a teacher is added, 
the age groups, by the use of this 
one more teacher, are shortened, and 
therefore made more advantageous to 
the pupils contained in each of them. 
One new teacher may in this way 



18 



The Cycle Plan as a Solution 

work a benefit not merely to the class put in charge 
of that teacher but to the classes above and below. 
Superintendents of small schools would do well to re- 
member how greatly their care in discovering or 
creating new teachers will be rewarded in these ways. 

B. The Two-Year Cycle 

Realizing, then, the disadvantages of the three-year 
cycle and supposing that teachers are more plentiful, 
let us organize our school on the two-year-cycle plan, in 
which Teacher a will be assigned to children of 4 and 
5, Teacher h to those of 6 and 7, Teacher c to 8 and 9, 
and so on. In this arrangement the cycle will include 
but two courses; that is, Teacher a will teach in 1917 
Course I, and in 1918 Course II. The pupil will spend 
but two years, therefore, in Teacher a's class, going on 
at the end of that time to the class of Teacher &, who 
has in one year Course III, and in another year Course 
IV. This two-year-cycle plan is far more advantageous 
from the pedagogical point of view. It is true that the 
sequence of any two courses may be reversed for those 
pupils who enter as the second year is begun, but, on 
the whole, the loss occasioned by teaching two different 
extremes of age is much less than in the Three- Year 
Cycle. In this case our school will appear as in 
Figure 6. 

Promotions will take place every two years, and we 
may, perhaps, hold our pupils up to nineteen years. 
This will be a Standard Two-Tear-Cycle School of the 
"eight-teacher" type. The capacity of the two-year-cycle 
school would run from sixteen pupils up to eighty or 
ninety (or even a hundred) pupils. Any improvement 

19 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

beyond the two-year-cycle would be 
toward the fully graded school (which 
might typically be called the One- Year- 
Cycle School). 

Describing the Standard Types 



^ 



v 



O 

i 

u 
a 
o> 

o 

t 

-a 

OS 



m 



i 



We have now established two stand- 
ard or normal types of small Sunday 
Schools, the three-year-cycle type with 
five teachers, and the two-year-cycle type 
with eight teachers. Let us describe 
these schools by using capital letters for 
the three-year cycle and small letters for 
the two-year cycle. Then A, B, C, D, E 
will represent the five-teacher three-year 
cycle school, and a, h, c, d, e, f, g, h, 
the eight-teacher two-year-cycle school. 
Hereafter in this discussion these stand- 
ard schools, and the teachers in them, 
will always be described by the corre^ 
sponding letters, capital or small. 

Mixing the Types in the Same School 

We have said above that the shorter 
the cycle the better the adjustment of the 
teaching to the pupil. Supposing, then, 
that the superintendent of an A, B, C, 
D, E school, anxious for efficiency, is 
able to discover or train one or two addi- 
tional teachers, but not enough to change 
his school to the full two-year-cycle plan 
(which would mean at least three more), 



20 



The Cycle Plan as a Solution 

can he secure any of the advantages of the two-year 
plan? Certainly he can. A mixture of types in the 
same school is entirely possible, and easy to arrange. 
It is evident that any two-year cycles may be resolved 
into three two-year cycles by the addition of one more 
teacher. Consider, for instance, cycles C (ages 10, 11, 
12) and D (ages 13, 14, 15)— 




Figure 7 — Illustration of Resolving Cycles. 



Teacher C becomes d, by keeping only the 10- and 11- 
year-olds. Teacher D likewise becomes /, by keeping 
the 14- and 15-year-olds. The new teacher, e, takes the 
12-year-olds from C and the 13-year-olds from D and 
forms the new two-year cycle. 

The rest of the school proceeds as before on the 
three-year-cycle plan. This results in a school of mixed 
type, not so easy to define in words, but perfectly and 
clearly discernible in the formula A, B, d, e, /, E. This 
type, with six teachers, is a very satisfactory and prac- 

21 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

tical way of handling a group of 45 up to 65 or even 70 
pupils. 

It is easy to see that indefinite variations of this 
sort may be made to fit the convenience of the various 
schools, and yet, so long as the age limits and cycle 
structure are preserved, the standard of organization in 
the school could easily be understood and its formula 
interpreted with a moment's notice. It would be per- 
fectly possible to catalogue, by means of the formula, 
hundreds of small schools according to their types, and 
to see at a glance which type was the more frequent, or 
which schools were run on exactly the same type. 



22 



CHAPTER V 

The Teaching Material 

A. Different Standards Possible 

So far nothing has been said as to the subjects which 
are to be taught in the school. It is entirely possible 
to standardize these, just as we have standardized the 
types. It is only necessary to decide what subjects shall 
be assigned to the different ages or grades. Such a 
judgment can be made, if desired, by the educational 
authorities of a province, or a diocese, or even an arch- 
deaconry. Then every cycle uses the material assigned 
to the ages or grades included in that cycle. 

B. Christian Nurture Series Recommended 

The writer believes that the courses of the new 
Christian Nurture Series should be chosen as the best 
lesson system. This system is probably the most ef- 
fective at present obtainable. It makes a definite 
demand upon the teacher, but it also interests both 
teacher and pupil. Especial attention is given in 
Chaper VI to the preparation of the teacher to use the 
Christian Nurture Courses. This material would run 
as follows : 

23 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

Three-Year Cycle Nurture Courses Two-Year Cycle 

Grade 

| K 1 1. Fatherhood of God (Part I) . . . 4 ) ~ , m 

Cycle A ^K2 2. Fatherhood of God (Part II) . . 5 f L3FClefl 

( 1 3. Trust in God 61 p - , 

C 2 4. Obedience to God 7f uycle e 

Cycle B -^3 5. God with Man 8. ~- _ 

( 4 6. God's Great Family 9[ lyclec 

( 5 7. The Christian Seasons 10 ' r<™i« * 

Cycle C < 6 8. Church Worship & Membership 11 J. cycle a 

( 7 9. Life of Our Lord 12* «_-_ _ 

( 8 10. The Long Life of the Church. .131 Cycle e 

Cycle D s H 1 11. Spread of the Church's Message 14 ) r«««i« * 

( H 2 12. (An Outline Study of the Bible) 15 { Cycle 7 

{H3 13. (Christian Doctrine) 16 J P _ nlo „ 

H 4 14. (Life Problems) 17 (. Cycle ^ 

15. (To be prepared) 18 f r „ clp h 

16. (To be prepared) 19 cycle * 



From this table it is easy to see which courses each 
cycle under the two standards is to use. For instance, 
wherever Cycle is found, it will be understood that 
Teacher C is using Nurture Courses 7, 8, and 9 in 
rotation. If it were desired to designate by formula 
which particular course was in use by Teacher C at 
any particular time, it could be indicated by C (I), 
C (II), or C (III). C (I) would mean the first course 
of the C Cycle, or No. 7 of the Nurture Series, C (II) 
would be No. 8, and C (III), No. 9. Or, referring to 
the two-year-cycle, d (I) would mean Course No. 7; 
and (II), Course No. 8. It is not at all necessary that 
the cycles as they begin their work should all start with 
the same relative course. The Eoman numeral in the 
parentheses would make it perfectly clear which courses 
were in use. For instance, a school described as A (I), 
B (II), C (III), D (II), E (I) would be understood as 
using, in the year described, Courses Nos. 1, 5, 9, 11, 
and 14. Such designations might not be often used, yet 
in cataloguing the schools of a diocese at the educational 
headquarters or in ordering material from a supply 

24 



The Teaching Material 

house (supposing the system were universally used) the 
abbreviation would be much appreciated, and perfect 
clearness maintained. 

C. Modifications in the Christian Nurture Courses for 
Cycle Use 

The teacher in any of the cycles, whether a three- or 
only two-year cycle, will face from the first the problem 
of modifying the material given in the Christian Nur- 
ture manuals so as to fit cycle conditions. Let us illus- 
trate ^the situation from Cycle C. 

The teacher of Cycle C starts in with Course 7, on 
the Christian Seasons. This course was originally writ- 
ten for children of Grade V (about ten years of age) 
but Teacher C has in the class not merely this grade 
but also Grades VI and VII. The question comes, will 
the material of Course 7 fit the VI and VII Grade 
pupils, or must it be modified? Fortunately, for the 
starting of the plan, this particular course is not a dif- 
ficult one to use for any of the ages involved. It is 
chiefly a matter of phraseology which is to be guarded, 
lest the teacher be talking "down" to the older pupils 
in the class, or seeming to assume that they are ten in- 
stead of twelve years old. 

Then comes the second year of the Cycle, when the 
subject of Worship is in hand. Here again the manual 
will not require much change. But the teacher will 
need to remember that the new members (Grade V) of 
her class cannot be quite so appreciative of worship as 
the 12-year-olds (Grade VII). The treatment of the 
Prayer Book must be made a trifle simpler and less 
detailed. Nor can Teacher C expect quite so compre- 

25 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

hensive an understanding of the Old Testament stories 
which illustrate this course. 

The third year of Teacher C's work will bring back 
the study of the Life of Christ, this time in more detail. 
This treatment, and the home work expected, will be 
entirely too advanced for the new children of Grade V 
unless the teacher is careful to adapt it to these younger 
ones. This can be done by lessening the amount of 
notebook work and taking care that the class work is 
made clear and simple. Of the three courses in the 
cycle it will be this one which requires the most adap- 
tation. 

In the fourth year's work Teacher C returns to 
Course 7 and in so doing repeats — though in another 
form — the Life of Christ for both the VI and VII 
Grades. In one sense this rapid review work will be 
good for those who went over the details in the previous 
year. On the other hand it may prove a little less in- 
teresting unless the teacher is careful to dwell on new 
aspects of the story, and especially the feeling which 
lies behind it. The situation, however, is somewhat 
relieved by the fact that the first and last thirds of 
Course 7 use other material. 

The modifications required in the other cycles will be 
handled in the same general way as has been suggested 
above. There will be no difficulty at all in Cycle A, and 
very little in Cycle B. In the case of this latter cycle, 
it may be necessary to make slight adjustments in 
Course 6, which is to deal chiefly with Missions and the 
Catechism. This latter subject may be a trifle difficult 
for children of the II Grade. If this is found to be the 
case the best way will be to excuse these from the 

26 



The Teaching Material 

harder part of the work, making a point to require of 
them what has been omitted when a year and two years 
later they cover the ground again in Courses 4 and 5. 

In Cycle D the adjustment required will be chiefly 
in the third year, when it will be necessary to carry 
pupils of Grade VIII through an outline Course on the 
Old and New Testaments. This may be accomplished, 
however, by tempering the questions and requirements 
to the pupils of that age, putting the brunt of the work, 
especially in the more abstract ideas, upon the older 
pupils. Those in Grade VIII should be able to handle 
the biographical and historical sides of the course with- 
out difficulty. 

The greater part of the modifications needed, there- 
fore, are those which arise in the course of the third 
year of the different cycles. By that time, however, the 
skill and experience of any teacher who has been over 
the previous courses will probably be equal to the de- 
mand thus created. 



27 



CHAPTER VI 

Training the Teacher in a Small School 

A. The Greater Need 

The need for a teacher to be well prepared is greater 
in small school work than in a large school. The 
larger school will hold its own by reason of its num- 
bers, while the smaller school needs the encouragement 
of especial interest. The large school covers a field in 
which capable teachers are more easily found, while the 
small school is under the necessity of creating teachers. 
The trained teacher can be a very large factor in the 
success and upbuilding of the small school, and through 
this service make an important contribution to the 
parish. 

B. Who Shall Do the Training 

Generally the rector, missionary, or minister-in- 
charge of the small parish must take the lead as trainer. 
At least upon him must fall the responsibility for urging 
such training. This work indeed is more worth his 
time and attention than almost any other, and he can 
well afford, in view of the future, to take the time neces- 
sary for it. This time will probably amount to about 
two or three hours a week. Doubtless there are some 
men in the more mature ranks of the ministry who feel 

28 



Training the Teacher in a Small School 

that they have never been taught in their ministerial 
preparation how to do such work. There are others who 
for one reason or another feel unfitted for it. Yet even 
for such the task is not an impossible one. There are 
books sufficient and inexpensive to point the way, and 
more direct guidance may be had by means of the cor- 
respondence courses of the General Board of Eeligious 
Education (address 289 Fourth avenue, New York 
City). 

It may prove possible, however, for the teacher her- 
self (or himself) to carry on the needed training. 
Teachers should not hesitate to attempt the task. Sug- 
gestions and advice are always to be had by writing to 
the General Board, and study by correspondence is 
always possible. 

C. The Subjects for Training 

The most important qualities for teacher-training in 
the small school are concreteness and simplicity. Direct 
application to the work in hand, rather than learned 
treatises, is the main object. 

The first principle to be observed is that each teacher 
should receive training with the cycle in view which 
this teacher is to lead. This means that, for the most 
part, each teacher must be trained individually. In a 
small school this plan is entirely possible, where in a 
large school it might not prove so easy. 

There are certain features of the material to be 
taught (and we are assuming this material to be that 
of the Christian Nurture Series) which every teacher 
will need to understand; for instance — 

1. The Five-Fold Aim embodied in the series. 

29 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

2. The plan of securing parental cooperation. 

3. The idea of training the child in Christian 
Giving. 

These matters should be taken up with all the teach- 
ers at once, before the courses begin. Each teacher 
should receive the material of the course assigned in 
sufficient time so that she (or he) will be able to read 
the course entirely through before beginning to teach. 
As these courses start in September, it would be well to 
place the material in the teacher's hands in the summer 
time. 

Let us, therefore, survey the items necessary for 
teachers of the different cycles, whether of the three-year 
or two-year plan. The subjects for training will be of 
two sorts, one pedagogical and the other concerning the 
subject matter. In the following lists the pedagogical 
subjects have been starred. Detailed direction illus- 
trating, in the cases of Teachers B, D, b, and d, just 
how the training should be carried out, will be found in 
Chapter XIII. 

1. The Three-Tear-Cycle Teachers 

Teacher A (who must deal with ages 4, 5, 6, and 
Courses 1, 2, and 3) 

This teacher needs to understand especially — 

* The separate aims of Courses 1, 2, and 3. 

* "Beginners' " methods and the characteristics of child 

life from 4 to 7 years of age. 

* The art of story-telling. 
The Christian Year. 

The Biblical material covered by the stories in 
Courses 1, 2, and 3. 

30 



Training the Teacher in a Small School 

Teacher B (who must deal with ages 7, 8, 9, 
and Courses 4, 5, 6) 

This teacher needs to understand especially — 

* The separate aims of Courses 4, 5, and 6. 

* Primary methods, and the characteristics of child 

life from 7 to 10 years of age. 

* Story-telling. 

The Christian Year. 

The Church Catechism. 

The Biblical material involved in Courses 4, 5, and 6. 

(See detailed illustration in Chapter XIII.) 



Teacher C (who must deal with ages 10, 11, 12, 
and Courses 7, 8, and 9) 

This teacher needs to understand especially — 

* The separate aims of Courses 7, 8, and 9. 

* Junior methods, and characteristics of child life from 

10 to 13 years of age. 
The Christian Year. 
The Church Catechism. 
The Prayer Book. 
Old Testament History. 
The Life of Christ. 



Teacher D (who must deal with ages 13, 14, and 
15, and Courses 10, 11, and 12) 

This teacher needs to understand especially — 

* The separate aims of Courses 10, 11, and 12. 

* Early adolescent methods and characteristics. 
The Book of the Acts. 

Church History. 

Missions. 

Biblical History and Literature. 

(See detailed illustration in Chapter XIII.) 

31 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

Teacher E (who must deal with ages 16, 17, and 

18, and Courses 13, 14, and X) 
This teacher needs especially to understand — 

* The separate aims of Courses 13, 14, and X. 

* Senior methods and characteristics. 
Christian doctrine and modern thought. 
Social Service. 

2. The Two-Tear-Cyole Teachers 

Teacher a (who must deal with ages 4 and 5, 

and Courses 1, 2) 
This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 1 and 2. 

* Methods for and characteristics of "beginners". 

* The art of story-telling. 
The Christian Year. 

The Biblical material covered in Courses 1 and 2. 

Teacher h (who must deal with ages 6 and 7, 
and Courses 3, 4) 
This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 3 and 4. 

* Primary methods and characteristics. 

* The art of story-telling. 
The Christian Year. 

The Biblical material covered in Courses 3 and 4. 
(See detailed illustration in Chapter XIII.) 

Teacher c (who must deal with ages 8 and 9, 

and Courses 5, 6) 
This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 5 and 6. 

* Primary methods and characteristics. 

* The art of story-telling. 

32 



Training the Teacher in a Small School 

The Catechism. 

The Biblical material covered in Course 5. 

Missions. 

Teacher d (who must deal with ages 10 and 11, 
and Courses 7 and 8) 

This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 7 and 8. 

* Junior methods and characteristics. 
The Christian Year. 

The Prayer Book. 

The Life of Christ. 

Old Testament History. 

(See detailed illustration in Chapter XIII.) 

Teacher e (who must deal with ages 12 and 13, 
and Courses 9 and 10) 

This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 9 and 10. 

* Early senior methods and characteristics. 
The Life of Christ. 

The Books of the Acts. 
Church History. 

Teacher f (who must deal with ages 14 and 15, 
and Courses 11 and 12) 

This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 11 and 12. 

* Adolescent methods and characteristics. 
Church History. 

Missions. 

Biblical History and Literature. 

Teacher g (who must deal with ages 16 and 17, 
and Courses 13 and 14) 

33 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses 13 and 14. 

* Adolescent methods and characteristics. 
Christian doctrine and modern thought. 
Social Service. 

Teacher h (who must deal with ages 18 and 19, 

and Courses X and Y) 
This teacher needs training in — 

* The separate aims of Courses X and Y. 

* Later adolescent methods and characteristics. 
The subject matter of Courses X and Y. 

3. Teachers of Modified Cycles 

It can easily be seen from the foregoing lists how 
adjustments can be made for teachers of abnormal 
cycles, or cases where the standard has been set back. 
Such adjustments must be mostly in the line of the 
subject matter. 

D. The Method in Training 

1. We have already said that for the most part 
teachers for small school work should be trained indi- 
vidually. This means each cycle by itself. In any case 
where two cycles cover the same group of ages, as for 
instance where the sexes are separated, the teachers of 
similar cycles may of course be taught together. The 
principle is to deal separately with cycle-teachers, or 
with the same cycle-group of teachers. 

2. It would be impossible to do this every week for 
every teacher. The better method is to try to meet each 
teacher (or cycle-group) once a month. If there are 
five teachers this can be easily done with little more 

34 



Training the Teacher in a Small School 

than one appointment per week. If there are more than 
five, as in a two-year-cycle plan, it may not be possible 
to get round the teaching corps so often, unless two 
meetings per week can be arranged. The trainer must 
make the best adjustment possible under his circum- 
stances. 

3. As there are two distinct branches of training, 
the pedagogical study (starred) and the subject matter, 
the wisest plan is to divide the meeting time between 
the two, giving a third of the period to pedagogical 
training, and two thirds to the subject matter. 

Thus, if the conference with the teacher lasts for an 
hour and a half, the first half hour may be devoted to 
pedagogy, and then an hour to subject matter. 

To explain the separate aim (and method) of any 
particular course is not a lengthy matter. It may 
easily be completed in the first one or two conferences 
— and the time for pedagogy at the succeeding con- 
ferences devoted to the particular elements of method 
and child-study needed by any teacher. This part of 
the training may be so mapped out as to cover the three 
years or the two years of the cycle as the case may be. 
This allows time for some thoroughness. The best plan 
is, probably, to assign appropriate readings from some 
good text-book, for instance Weigle's The Pupil and the 
Teacher, and then during the conference apply the 
principles explained in the assignment to the particular 
class work of this teacher. 

The different elements of subject matter will not all 
be required at once. Each year at least one will be 
needed and this may be discussed at the conferences 
during that year, during the last two-thirds of the 

35 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

period. There are two different ways of taking up this 
subject matter : 

a) The simpler method is to take the topics needed 

for the next four, five, or six lessons (depend- 
ing on the length of the interval before this 
teacher will be met again) and make sure that 
they are well understood, analyzed, and cor- 
related. This can be done, on the basis of the 
schedule of correlations furnished with each 
of the Christian Nurture Courses. Additional 
reading may be recommended and explanation 
of difficult points furnished. 

b) The other method is to attack the subject of the 

year's lessons as a whole, without reference to 
the individual lessons or the schedule, and de- 
velop a general intelligence on the whole sub- 
ject. For this purpose the use of the Corre- 
spondence Outlines of the General Board of 
Religious Education will prove useful, and the 
trainer may, if desired, take the course with 
the Board's instructor in advance of his work 
with the teacher. Here again outside reading 
will be very useful to the teacher if it can be 
accomplished. 

E. The Length of the Training 

It will be seen that on this system a teacher who has 
once gone through any of the cycles under training 
should be able to continue on the second round of that 
cycle with much less assistance from the trainer, or 
even without any. This, then, is an incentive for both 
teacher and trainer to put in three years, or two years, 

36 



Training the Teacher in a Small School 

as the case may be, of thorough training work, in the 
reasonable expectation that the course of training with 
that teacher, once completed, will not require to be gone 
over again. 

F. A Book List Suitable for Use with the Several Cycles 

For General Training — 

Weigle: The Pupil and the Teacher. Doran, 60c. 

Gardner: The Children's Challenge. Young Church- 
man Co., 40c (paper); 75c (cloth). 

The Making of Modem Crusaders. Board of Missions. 
N. Y., 25c. 

Kent: Historical Bible. Scribner. First 4 vols., 
paper, 75c each; cloth, $1.25 each. 

Gates: The Life of Jesus — Teacher's Manual. Univ. 
of Chicago Press, 75c. 
For Cycles A and B, or Cycles a, h, c — 

Danielson: Lessons for Teachers of Beginners, Pil- 
grim Press, 70c. 

St. John: Stories and Story -Telling. Pilgrim Press, 
60c. 

Hartford: God's Little Children. N. Y. S. S. Com., 75c. 

The Children's Charter ( Church Catechism ) . Nat'l 
Society's Depository, 60c. 
For Cycles C and D, or Cycles d, e, f — 

Alexander: The "Teen" Age. Assoc. Press, 50c. 

Richardson & Loomis : The Boy Scout Movement, ap- 
plied by the Church. Scribner, $1.50. 

Moxcey: Girlhood and Character. Abingdon Press, 
$1.50. 

Gwynne: The Christian Year. Longmans, Green, & 
Co., 75c. 

Longman: The Church's Book of Days (Prayer Book) . 
National Society's Depository, 50c. 

From Baptism to Holy Communion. National So- 
ciety's Depository, 80c. 

Stokoe: Manual of the Four Gospels. Oxford, $1.00. 

37 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

Stokoe: Manual of Acts of Apostles. Oxford, $1.00. 

Cutts: Turning Points in General Church History. 

S. P. C. K., London. U. S. A., E. S. Gorham, $1.40. 

Lane: Illustrated Notes on English Church History. 

2 vols. S. P. C. K., London. U. S. A., Edwin S. 

Gorham, 80c. 

Hodges: Episcopal Church in America. 50c. 

Creegan : Great Missionaries of the Church. Crowell, 

75c. 
Creegan : Pioneer Missionaries of the Church. Amer. 
Tract Society, 50c. 
For Cycle E, or Cycles g and h — 

Hazard, Fowler: The Books of the Bible. Pilgrim 

Press, 50c. 
Fowler: Religion of the Old Testament. Univ. of 

Chicago Press, $1.00. 
Clarke: Outlines of Theology. Scribner, $2.50. 
What is Social Service? 

Social Service Program for the Parish (both pub- 
lished by the Joint Commission on Social Service). 
The above list might be secured and used as a 
Teacher Training Library. Not all of the books would 
need purchasing at the outset. They could be bought 
gradually as the courses for which they were needed 
came around in the cycles. The list, of course, is not 
exhaustive, but offers something, at least, which would 
be helpful for all of the Christian Nurture Courses now 
in print. 



38 



CHAPTER VII 

Officers and their Duties 

The small school does not need many officers, but it 
does need good ones. Traditionally the officers of a 
Sunday School, like those of a church, have been men. 
There may be good reason in many cases to break this 
tradition. Women are becoming more and more promi- 
nent in educational positions, and women as superin- 
tendents of schools are not out of place. Taking the 
Church as a whole, there are probably many of them 
occupying this position and some have been notably 
successful. This is said without any desire to substitute 
women for men where the latter are capable and avail- 
able, but merely to indicate that there is a second way 
out if suitable men are not at hand. 

The officers needed in a small school are usually a 
superintendent, and a secretary-treasurer. Let us indi- 
cate a few of the duties of each with especial reference 
to the needs of this kind of a school. 

A. The Superintendent 

The responsibility for the general welfare of the 
school must always fall to the superintendent. Its 
healthy progress, and many of the minor matters mak- 
ing it attractive or the opposite, will in the end be part 

39 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

of his burden no matter how much he may be helped by 
teachers and others. The following heads are at least 
a few of the details which ought to be cared for by him 
and in which he may show his competence. 

1. First, then, theories. He should know something 
of child life; his love for children should be the source 
of insight into their ways and should lead him to 
thought and study concerning the best educational 
methods and material. Even if he cannot indulge in a 
private library of Eeligious Pedagogy he should know 
by thorough reading a few of the best books and should 
keep in touch with the educational headquarters of his 
diocese. Some attention to the Church press will bring 
to his notice the more progressive things concerning 
education in religion. 

2. To balance theory there should be the cultivation 
of his capacity to deal with individuals, children and 
teachers, but primarily teachers. Appreciation, pa- 
tience, and helpfulness, both in securing and in guiding 
the teaching force, are of great importance. The deter- 
mination to consult with them frequently, and to confer 
over both their problems and his, is of great value. 
Many a superintendent loses in the end by acting on his 
own impulses or becoming agitated over his own 
impressions without due inquiry and knowledge of 
the circumstances gained from consultation with teach- 
ers. These consultations should be not only individual 
but the superintendent and the teaching group as a 
whole should corporately consider the welfare of the 
school at stated periods during the year. Discouraged 
teachers are a drag upon the school, destroying its 
vitality and interest. The superintendent should be on 

40 



Officers and their Duties 

the outlook to encourage, assist, and aid the teacher 
whose zeal is overborne by difficulties. 

3. The third sphere of important function is the 
leading of the school. Many of the qualities to which 
we shall refer in a succeeding chapter as making the 
school attractive are dependent upon the conduct of the 
superintendent during the session of the school. His 
good spirit and enthusiasm, or the lack of them, are 
reflected in both teacher and pupil. Discipline and 
order grow out of his careful planning, or disappear 
through his carelessness. The reverence of the school 
depends upon his own faith in worship, and his acuteness 
in adjusting the elements of worship to the comprehen- 
sion and interests of the pupils. Such mundane things 
as seating, good light, and good air are not too small 
for him to observe week by week. Personal interest in 
the smallest child is not too great an expenditure. The 
conditions of the school session need thoughtful watch- 
ing. Much can be learned as to teaching ability and 
teachers' needs by quietly observing from a little dis- 
tance what happens while the lesson is going on. In all 
these ways the superintendent should be ingenious, un- 
afraid of experiment, kindly in criticism, and always 
striving to bear the burdens of the teacher, if possible, 
as his own. 

4. The relation of the school to the Church is some- 
thing which demands that the superintendent be con- 
stantly conscious of it. He is not engaged in a separate 
and unrelated task, but is making Churchmen and 
Churchwomen for the future, or else marring them. 
There must be in his own attitude a sense of the inti- 
mate connection between the facts of religion and ex- 

41 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

pressing them in worship and service. Confirmation 
may be a mile-post but it is not a goal. Efficiency of 
youth in the life of the Church and attachment to the 
parish through many years must be part of the product 
of his labors with the child. 

5. It is not all on Sundays. Week-days require at 
least some of the superintendent's thought and atten- 
tion in behalf of the school. There is the looking 
through of records and studying of causes of defection, 
absenteeism, and the like, the making possible of new 
advances and ventures, the planning for next Sunday's 
session, so as to avoid all possible clogging of details in 
the short hour given to the school. Not least of all is 
the quiet influence which can be exercised upon home 
and parents by the occasional word spoken on the street, 
in the shop, the brief visit at the gate, or some other 
chance of discussing with those most interested the 
things that will better the situation. The health and 
economic welfare of his pupils are also matters of con- 
cern for the good superintendent. He can find for them 
places in business as well as in the Bible and he does 
not forget those who are sick or away. 

B. The Secretary-Treasurer 

1. The faithful coadjutor of the superintendent is 
the capable secretary. His is not a mere devotion to the 
record book and to accounts. Records are of great 
value, but still more valuable is the consideration of 
what those records mean in terms of life. There are 
many sides of Sunday School life which are worth 
studying by means of statistics, and statistics are not 
meant to be shut away in a book and a desk. Charts 

42 



Officers and their Duties 

upon school walls, items in the parish paper, devices of 
various sorts to interest the child, all these are worth 
attention. 

2. The recording of marks, monthly or quarterly 
reports to parents of the scholarship and attendance of 
pupils, are very much worth while. Teachers need his 
help in keeping their records clear. A simple form of 
scholarship marking is not difficult. 1, 2, and 3, or the 
decimal system up to 100, prove the easy basis of calcu- 
lation at the end of the month or quarter. If the school 
is really trying to be a school the record of scholarship 
is quite as important as the record of attendance. 

3. In small schools the reception and installation of 
new pupils should fall to the lot of the secretary, unless 
it can be attended to by the superintendent. Some care 
must be exercised, especially in a cycle school. The 
public school grade is of great importance and should 
be accurately recorded, or its equivalent if the child is 
not in public school. The secretary should understand 
thoroughly the cycle system of the school, and be ready 
to place the child whatever his grade, or consider excep- 
tions in case such demand attention. 

4. To the secretary's care will probably fall the 
securing of supplies for the school. He must know, 
therefore, with accuracy what will be needed. He must 
watch ahead for shortages of stock and keep careful 
memoranda of purchases, showing date and cost. 

5. In a cycle school it is especially important that 
promotions and transfers from cycle to cycle be care- 
fully and accurately made and also recorded. The Com- 
mencement Sunday of the school at the end of the term 
will help to make such matters definite, but the begin- 

43 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

ning of each year's work will require a review of classes, 
individual ages and grades, and determination as to 
which pupils shall be promoted. 

6. Beside this there is the care of the treasury, 
which is no small task even if the amount of money be 
not great. In the Class Treasury System the book- 
keeping must be by classes, and as treasurer the secretary 
will have to be ready to dispense funds frequently on the 
signed order of the class teacher. All this detail which 
inevitably must be somewhat burdensome is lightened 
by the thought that it is part of the education of the 
future Churchmen and Churchwomen in generous giv- 
ing and is therefore worth while even with its burdens. 
The secretary should aim to attend all corporate meet- 
ings of superintendent and teachers, and summaries of 
the work in his department will be of great help to the 
discussions. 



44 



CHAPTER VIII 
Changing to the New Plan 

The first step is consultation with the teachers. The 
superintendent should take pains to explain carefully, 
and without haste, the advantages of the standard plan, 
and the arrangement of the several cycles. Uncertainty 
and vagueness are great dampeners of enthusiasm 
among teachers. Human nature likes the old ways 
better, and the average person is averse to changes not 
clearly advantageous. Be sure to illustrate the matter 
fully, with an exhibit of at least some of the material. 
Do not hurry the new plan into the school until you 
have the cordial backing of at least a majority of the 
teachers. Approach them from the point of view of 
what is best for the child, not what is easiest for the 
teacher. The good of the child is, in the end, the good 
of the parish and of the Church. Many plans succeed 
by being ventured as an experiment. This one can be 
presented as an experiment well worth trying. True, 
its results will not be fully evident for several years, yet 
one can afford that much patience for a great good. 

The second step, once the interest and backing of the 
teachers is assured, is to secure a correct list of pupils 
with ages, and, more important still, school grades at- 
tached to their names. The public school grades will 

45 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

be the basis for making up the cycle groups. Actual 
ages can usually be disregarded, except in cases where 
pupils physically well-developed toward adolescence are 
mentally backward or even deficient. Economic con- 
ditions in the household may also occasionally hold a 
child back in the public school grades. In exceptional 
cases of this sort it is best in the Sunday School to make 
some allowances in the direction of keeping the pupil 
in that age-group with which he is normally associated 
outside the school. Especially at the turn of adolescence 
regard must be had to these exceptions. There are fac- 
tors in religious development, affected by physical 
changes, which are more significant and important in 
the Church than in the public school, and are sufficient 
reason for making a difference between the grading 
assigned a child between the public and the Sunday 
School. 

The division previously pointed out, in the explana- 
tion of the cycle plan, will show how the new groups 
are to be formed. When ages and grades have been 
accordingly sorted, the size of classes must be consid- 
ered, and the assignments of various teachers to par- 
ticular cycles arranged. 

Meantime, announcement should be made to parents 
that a reorganization is to take place which will be 
greatly to the educational advantage of the children. 
The children, too, should hear of it from the superin- 
tendent in an authoritative way, not as something about 
which they are consulted, but as a matter for the 
ultimate benefit of the school as a whole, with which 
they will be expected to accord, for that reason, even 
though it entail upon certain ones a personal sacrifice 

46 



Changing to the Nen> Plan 

in the giving up of teachers or of class companions. 
Children are apt to regard such changes as in some 
sense personally aimed at them. They resent the nec- 
essary separations, threaten defection, raise objections 
of all kinds. Sometimes they succeed in enlisting the 
parents on their side. But usually a patient explana- 
tion to the parents from some one in authority, and 
an appeal to stand by the reorganization because of 
its ultimate benefit to all concerned, will win the day. 
The children should be kindly but firmly told that the 
welfare of the whole school is a matter for the authori- 
ties of the school to determine. Nothing is worse for 
the morale of the school than to have a pupil believe 
that he can force consideration of his personal likes and 
dislikes by a threat of departure. In ninety-nine cases 
out of a hundred such threats are never carried out, and 
need cause no alarm to either teacher or officers. 

As a third step the secretary should prepare new 
lists, class books, etc., and make sure that needed sup- 
plies and literature are on hand. The teachers should 
each be provided with a correct list of the new class 
group. 

Finally a certain Sunday should be set in advance 
for the beginning of the new order of things. On the 
Sunday previous to this date the pupils will be told to 
which of the new class groups they are to be assigned. 
Then on the Sunday set each teacher will collect the 
new group and proceed to work. 

Naturally, all this is more easily accomplished at the 
beginning of a new year of the school. Yet it is not 
imperative that the change should be delayed to such 
a date. 

47 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

The question is often asked, with which of the 
courses belonging to any one cycle should a teacher 
begin in starting the new plan. The answer is, it makes 
very little difference. As the need of modifications, 
however, as shown in a succeeding chapter, is least in 
the first course of each cycle it is probably advisable, 
other things being equal, to start the cycles with the 
first course named in each case. 



48 



CHAPTER IX 

Financing the Small School 

One of the very real and considerable difficulties in 
the small school is to get adequate financial support. 
The following suggestions may be found helpful in 
securing enough money to make the school effective. 

1. Make much of the importance of the school to 
the parish or mission and to the Church. We con- 
stantly undervalue the work which is done for the 
coming generation, even in our own minds. And under- 
valuation inevitably expresses itself in the withholding 
of funds. The attitude of a parish or mission toward 
its school should be one of pride. The school is one of 
the best means of promoting growth. Everyone should 
be interested in it, and concerned to have it of the best. 
But this state of mind in the parishioner must be pro- 
duced by a similar attitude on the part of the parochial 
authorities, minister, superintendent, teachers, etc. 
The vestry should be made to feel that the welfare of the 
school is of the greatest importance. They themselves 
as leaders in the parish are responsible for their attitude 
toward the school, and for service in the school. The 
writer knows of a school where this attitude on the part 
of the rector has resulted in securing every member of 
the vestry as a teacher in the school. With this sense 

49 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

of responsibility felt by the vestry or mission committee, 
it will not be difficult to get their financial backing for 
the school. 

2. Small schools, like large ones, are frequently led 
to depend upon the offerings of the pupils themselves 
for the running expenses of the school. It is entirely 
reasonable that each child should — as his elders do, and 
as it is desirable to train him to do — give something 
for the support of the school, but it is not fair to put 
the whole expense of the school on the pupils. In the 
first place this plan does not stimulate giving. And the 
child in any school, especially in the small school, needs 
to be taught to give generously. Giving is stimulated 
in several ways : a) by interesting the pupil in what he 
is giving to; b) by presenting several objects for his 
gifts and leaving to him — by vote in the class group — 
the choice among them, or the distribution among them 
of what he gives ; c) by a definite system of giving, such 
as an envelope or a pledge. Many schools have doubled 
their offering by a system of this sort. 

The principle is this: Some, at least, of the money 
given by a child should be used in a way that will stimu- 
late his giving, and not merely spent at the dictation of 
others for some object which is part of the obligation 
of the school or the parish. The system of the Christian 
Nurture Series in finance (called the Class Treasury 
System and described in the manuals) is based upon 
this principle, and has been proved over and over again 
to bring results. Obligations of the school or parish 
may wisely be presented to pupils as among the things 
to which they should give. But to collect the pupils' 
money and use it solely for such purposes without 

50 



Financing the Small School 

knowledge or choice on his part is to train him to the 
lowest level of giving. 

3. Families whose children are trained in the school 
are not insensible to the benefit which a good school con- 
fers. They can be brought by tactful representations 
of the need of the school to give it extra support on the 
same principle that many parents pay for a child's 
education in a private school because of special advan- 
tages. Some schools are able to collect thus from the 
family the cost of each child's lesson book or materials, 
a fixed sum per annum. Others secure a special sub- 
scription from parents, according to their means, and 
the number of children they have in the school. Or 
again parents will help in the raising of some special 
fund for the equipment of the school. The principle at 
bottom is that the parents recognize the effort the 
parish is making, and the individual teachers are mak- 
ing (all of which benefits them as parents), and are will- 
ing therefore to cooperate in the matter of expenses. 
In order to insure this parental attitude, however, there 
must be really good and valuable work done by the 
school and its teachers. 

4. Every parish or mission treasury should make 
some appropriation, no matter how small, which recog- 
nizes the corporate responsibility of the parish or the 
Church for the education of the youth. The Sunday 
School is no longer a charity done to certain poor chil- 
dren, as in the days of Eaikes. It is the process which 
the whole Church has selected as suitable for all its 
children, for the making and securing the Church of 
the future, and for producing efficient citizens in the 
Kingdom of God. It is just as much an accepted and 

51 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

required activity of the parish as education is of the 
state or the community. It is as much an obligation on 
the parish treasury as providing a minister or a choir. 

5. Special equipment may often be solicited as a 
gift from sources outside the usual givers, whether 
children or parents or parish. Large neighboring 
schools can sometimes be asked for particular things, 
such as furnishings, maps, etc., which they could bestow 
as a special gift possibly at Christmas time. Diocesan 
boards of education might see their way to securing 
special donations of this sort for needy schools or 
strategic situations. The Church Periodical Club has 
been exceedingly helpful sometimes under such situa- 
tions. An appeal to the Bishop might not be in vain, if 
made as an exceptional matter. All these means may 
be used to lighten the general expense when sufficient 
reason exists, and when the welfare of the school is at 
stake. 

6. Wise economies are always possible. Among such 
we might mention : 

a) Purchasing material which shall be more or less 

permanent. Teachers' material, for instance, 
can be returned to the Sunday School, when a 
year's course is over, and be kept for the next 
use of that course. It need not become the 
private property of the teacher. 

b) Selecting such material as will equip the teacher 

well, even if the pupil has to be slighted. In 
the Christian Nurture Series, for instance, the 
teacher may be given a set of pictures for illus- 
trating the lessons, while it is not imperative 

52 



Financing the Small School 

that every pupil shall have a set. Again the 
pupil's leaflets and the parents' cooperation 
sheets are both useful and desirable, but with 
the cooperation sheets at hand one might for 
economy's sake in many of the courses dispense 
with the pupil's leaflet, and depend upon more 
careful notebook work. Many persons are led 
to refuse to buy the series because they can- 
not buy everything in it. The principle is, 
consider first what is indispensable to the 
teacher for good work, and let the rest go. Do 
not reject a course which equips the teacher 
thoroughly because you cannot do equally well 
for the pupil. A well-furnished teacher will 
"by hook or by crook" succeed in passing on to 
the pupil what is given her or him. 

c) Prevent waste of material. Require good care 

from pupils for their books, etc. Assert the 
principle that supplies once furnished must 
be paid for if lost, before they will be furnished 
again. 

d) Call upon the teachers for ingenuity in substi- 

tuting homemade material for those otherwise 
purchased. This may apply to notebooks, and 
things which require only duplicating to be 
made available to pupils. This costs time, of 
course, but it may enable a school to secure the 
best of what it does buy. 

7. As a measure of what the average school is able 
to do, it may be noted that somewhat wide enquiry 
shows that the expenditure per pupil for lesson material 

53 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

and general supplies reaches under moderate conditions 
to about half a dollar for the year. No school ought 
to aim at a lesser expenditure than this unless it be 
imperatively necessary. 



54 



CHAPTER X 

Making the School Attractive 

It is not easy for the small school to be attractive, 
but it is very necessary. And the more outward attrac- 
tiveness, by force of circumstances, is denied, the 
harder should be the attempt of superintendent and 
teachers to make the pleasantness of personality count. 
In these respects the following points are worth noting. 

1. The Spirit of the Leader 

The leader must forget the smallness of the school 
in his effort to give it a large value to each individual. 
He must take his leadership seriously, as it deserves, 
and display enthusiasm over the quality of the work 
done even if the enthusiasm of numbers be denied him. 
It is his appreciation, more than anything else, which 
will lend meaning to the task in which teachers and 
pupils are alike concerned. He must show that he, at 
least, believes in the greatness and value of that task, 
and the necessity of doing it well. The group of workers 
may indeed be small, but he knows, and must make it 
felt, that they are part of a great army, and responsible 
for performing to the very best the responsibilities 
given to them. 

He is to be equally undisturbed by the smallness of 

55 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

the money factor in the school. He will think of the 
offerings and the expenses not in totals, but per capita, 
and his comparisons will be made against the ability 
of those few and not against the large sums handled by 
other schools. He will be as careful and business-like 
over pennies as others are over dollars. 

The very smallness of the school will give added 
value to the exercise of personal interest. He can enter 
more thoroughly and sympathetically into each teach- 
er's work, and be on more friendly terms with each 
pupil. But the personalness of it must not relax the 
promptness and exactitude of execution which thorough 
work demands. There is no excuse for slipshod methods 
or lax discipline just because numbers are few. Set 
hours and definite methods are as important here as 
anywhere else. 

The leader must make the school feel its wholeness, 
so that it will respond with a loyalty which reaches be- 
yond the class and the individual teacher. The teachers 
will be made to feel the need of cooperating with each 
other, and of promoting a corporate welfare. In a 
small community or group jealousies and personalities 
are often allowed to grow and be made much of. The 
leader must show by word and example that these things 
must be set aside for the sake of the school as a whole. 

Especially in the sessions of the school on Sunday 
must the leader try to exercise his best gifts of heart 
and will. His bearing must show his joy in the work 
and his regard for his co-laborers, no matter how young. 
Each pupil must see a welcome in the leader's face, and 
hear the note of gladness in his voice. There must be a 
spirit not so much of stern discipline as of earnest 

56 



Making the School Attractive 

persuasion. It is real work the school is at, but the 
motive is love for the cause. 

2. Worship and Singing 

The conduct of the general exercises and of worship 
must combine reverence with enthusiasm. Prayers and 
Scripture must be chosen with reference to child-life, 
and used with occasional comment. The reading of 
them should be slow, distinct, and vital, not rapid, 
mechanical, and perfunctory. Direct application to the 
work or season at hand should be sought, and care be 
taken to select ideas and phraseology within reach of 
the child's comprehension. Easy and mechanical imi- 
tations of the stated services of the Church are inad- 
visable, though the temptation is to think that the 
educational value of familiarity with the liturgy atones 
for a want of direct application. The average superin- 
tendent spends too little thought on how his school will 
worship best and most truly. 

The singing is a large factor in creating an attrac- 
tive atmosphere in the school. Real leadership here is 
doubly valuable, and the superintendent should step 
aside for anyone who can do it to better advantage. 
Cheap and popular tunes are not a necessity, but brisk 
rhythm, well-marked time, and a reasonable range of 
notes count, as does a pianist with a little dash and 
vigor of touch. The Church Hymnal is perfectly pos- 
sible if proper selections are made. But real thought 
should be given to the selection of hymns appropriate in 
wording and sentiment to children. 

3. Observing the Festivals 

Time and thought should be liberally given to 

57 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

making the great Church Festivals, Christmas, Easter, 
and Whitsunday, full of interest to the Sunday School. 
A special service, in the church if in any way possible, 
processions, carols or special hymns, brief addresses 
suitable to children, illuminated programmes, or suit- 
able cards, or little gifts or flowers, if the funds permit, 
all these are distinctly enjoyable. Equally much does 
the child himself, on such occasions, enjoy making an 
offering to some definite object in which he is naturally 
interested, and concerning which considerable has been 
said beforehand in the school. These occasions are 
times when the clergyman of the parish should exercise 
his best ingenuity in bringing the season's message 
to the child from the child's viewpoint, and in language 
which claims the child's attention. 

4. Good Teaching and Lessons 

The quality of a teacher's work bears no small part 
in making any school attractive. Children, after all, 
are very patient and pliant toward their teachers. But 
we ought not to presume upon this. An uncertain 
teacher, an uninteresting lesson, a purely mechanical 
mental exercise— how shall these things make a child 
want to bring another with him, or even come himself? 
Most children like to go to Sunday School if they are 
met even half way by the quality of the teaching. 
Every teacher should realize that successful teaching, 
or the opposite, affects more than the one teacher's 
class. It gives a reputation at large to the school, 
attracting or repelling newcomers. Quiet observation 
of any teacher's class work from a little distance will 
soon enable a superintendent to measure a teacher's 

58 



Making the School Attractive 

potency and success. If Sunday after Sunday various 
members of the class sit listless, apathetic, gazing 
about, or whispering together, the danger point is 
reached. Something must be done, for there is a fault 
somewhere. 

5. Discipline 

Almost every child has an innate respect for disci- 
pline. More than that, he really likes to be drilled. 
He never feels discipline, so long as there is real in- 
terest. He knows that every game has rules. But he 
wants a game worth playing. Children secretly despise 
a school in disorder. And despising it they like to see 
how much they can add to its confusion. This variation 
in the game gives them a chance to be leaders. 

But no school where there is good work going on 
ever suffers seriously from want of discipline. The 
more real interest, the less need of discipline. If the 
problem of discipline becomes pressing, therefore, the 
superintendent may be sure there is some radical failure 
in teaching. He may and should lend his personal 
influence to preserve discipline, but meanwhile he 
should be searching beneath the surface for the failure 
of which the disorder is but an external symptom. 
In the preservation of order, however, there must be 
no privileged persons. Ringleaders must be discovered, 
urged to assist rather than hinder; be given tasks of 
responsibility if they will accept and discharge them 
faithfully. If not, there must be warnings, firm but 
kind, and finally exclusion. One of the best correc- 
tions in extreme cases is suspension from attendance 
at school for a given number of Sundays. 

59 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

There are, in effect, two types of school which 
attract children — one where the work is of such interest 
that no one thinks of being disorderly, the other where 
disorder is so constantly permitted that there is a 
spice of adventure in seeing what new form can be 
devised, or entertainment in watching someone else 
devise and execute it. The superintendent may take 
his choice. Between the two lies the realm of the dead. 

6. Consideration of Parents 

Every school leader anxious for the best results 
must try to get the family back of his efforts. He 
must endeavor to interest the parents in the work of 
the school, to make them know his interest in their 
children, his satisfaction in the pupils' progress, or 
concern over the pupils' want of response. Few parents 
can resist the appeal of a genuine interest in their 
children. This is a better line of approach to the home 
than merely a demand or insistence that the home 
should support the school. 

It should be possible in most small schools to estab- 
lish a very personal tie between the parent and the 
school. The list of families not being so very long, 
it should be the aim of the superintendent to reach a 
personal touch with each one, and to urge his teachers 
to do the same. Parents should be informed of and 
invited to the chief school functions and festivals. They 
should have periodical reports of the progress made by 
their children in the school. 

7. Parties and Picnics 

The superintendent of a small school will not forget 
that children are constitutionally predisposed toward 

60 



Making the School Attractive 

a jolly time. It may be that the winter will not offer 
opportunity for bringing the school together on a social 
basis, unless there is a parish house available. But 
if coming together in one group is out of the question 
the smaller groups forming classes or cycles in the 
school might each have at least one or two occasions 
of merrymaking. Such functions are not all purely 
of advantage to the child. Many a teacher and officer 
has been enabled under such auspices to get into real 
friendship and touch with pupils who before had been 
merely formally related to him. 

But whatever the possibilities of the winter for 
sociability, no springtime or summer should go by with- 
out at least one outdoor occasion in which all the 
pupils, their parents, and friends can take part, if 
desired. There should be a committee to assist on such 
excursions. The older pupils should be called upon to 
help. Some kind of games or outdoor entertainment 
should be arranged for, and reasonable hours observed. 

8. Making the Assembly Room Attractive 

We mention this last because as a rule it is the most 
difficult of accomplishment, as it requires always 
money and sometimes rebuilding. Light, good seating, 
and a few illustrative adornments, pictures and maps, 
are the most desirable attainments in this direction. 
Good ventilation is of course primary, but we assume 
that this can be easily obtained in most cases. A room 
in which children are to work should at least be cheer- 
ful in its general appearance. The eye should be pleased 
and not insulted. There should be at least a very few 
really beautiful things of a religious nature to look at, 

61 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

and two' large wall maps, one of Palestine under the 
Old Testament, and another under the New Testament 
divisions, are helpful for class work. 

Seating, perhaps, comes next in importance after 
light. Children, like grown-ups, want to have their 
feet on the floor — and seats which incline backward 
and raise the knees are detrimental to study. 

It need hardly be said that real cleanliness, and 
furniture, such as it is, in order, can be produced 
where all else is bare. And a fresh coat of paint once 
in a series of years will easily become a source of cheer 
and inspiration. Let us measure these things by what 
we would like in our own homes, and then provide them 
so far as may be possible. 



62 



CHAPTER XI 

Literature Dealing with the Small School 

So few have recognized the real differentiation of 
the smaller schools as organisms from the larger school 
that very little has been written with direct bearing 
on the problem we have attacked. Books which concern 
themselves with religious education in general, or the 
principles of teaching or child study, are as useful, of 
course, in the small as in the large school. But most 
of the best books on the organization of the Sunday 
School deal with the large school, or at least the school 
which has teachers enough to give each grade a class. 
In the case of such books the officer or teacher of a 
small school must be constantly asking: How can I 
apply the principle of this plan to my own school ? The 
actual plan probably cannot be reduced to fit, but the 
principle involved can usually be put into operation. 
Often it involves merely placing a definite responsibility 
upon some one person instead of organizing some group 
action, as in the larger school. Consequently, in read- 
ing such books the superintendent should not say to 
himself, as is often said, "This description or this plan 
fits a big school; there is nothing in it for me?" There 
is always something in it, but the something needs 
translating into terms of small school life, equipment, 

63 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

and possibilities. Such books therefore should be read 
with patience and insight, and the constant query: 
"What would this mean under conditions such as 
mine ?" The best of these books on the large school are 
probably the following : 

Dennen: The Scientific Management of the Sunday 
School. Young Churchman Co. 90c. 

Butler : The Churchman's Manual of Methods in Sunday 
Schools. Young Churchman Co. $1.00. 

Smith: The Sunday School of To-day. Revell. $1.25. 

Gardner: The Children's Challenge to the Church. 
Young Churchman Co. Paper, 40c; cloth, 75c. 

These four books are written by Churchmen. 

Athearn: The Church School. Pilgrim Press. $1.00. 

This book, though not by a Churchman, nor consid- 
ering particularly the ways of "this Church", is perhaps 
the most scientific treatment of school organization, and 
has abundant bibliographies. 

Cope: The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Prac- 
tice. Revell. $1.00. 

Cope: Efficiency in the Sunday School. Hodder and 
Stoughton. $1.00. 

Dr. Cope's position, as for many years the General 
Secretary of the Religious Education Association, gives 
especial authority to what he says. 

Meyer: The Graded Sunday School in Principle and 
Practice. Eaton and Mains. 75c. 

McElfresh : The Training of Sunday School Teachers and 
Officers. Eaton and Mains. 75c. 

The following books, however, have been written 
recently, and with especial reference to the small school. 

64 



Literature Dealing with the Small School 

Fergusson : How to Run a Little Sunday School. Kevell. 
60c. 

McConaughy: Sunday School Teaching and Management. 
American S. S. Union. Cloth, 40c; paper, 25c. 

Of there two, Dr. Fergusson's book accepts in prin- 
ciple the idea of cycle organization, but does not explain 
it in detail. Both are written without especial bearing 
on work in the Episcopal Church, but both contain 
excellent practical suggestions. 



65 



PART II 
Details of the Plan 

Chapter XII. Modifications of Standard Cycles for Local 
Needs. 

XIII. Some Illustrations of Teacher Training. 

XIV. Studying the Small School. 

XV. Possible Lines of Special Experiment. 



CHAPTER XII 

Modifications of Standard Cycles for 
Local Needs 

Every small school must in certain respects be a 
law unto itself. The great value of the cycle plan is 
that the adjustment to local conditions can be very 
easily made and very clearly indicated without in any 
way disturbing the general unity of the plan. The pur- 
pose of the present chapter is either to answer or to 
suggest solutions for the questions which will inevitably 
arise when any superintendent, having been in general 
pleased with the theory of Part I, begins to think out 
in detail how this will apply to "my school". 

One can distinguish certain modifications which may 
be almost "expected" and therefore desirable, and others 
which are more abnormal, and therefore less desirable, 
although necessary. 

A. The more Advisable Modifications 

1. Combining Standard Cycles of Different Kinds 

We have already discussed this form of school on 
page 20. It is to be commended as being an approach 
to the thorough gradation which would be the goal of 
any school. Cases of this sort are as follows : 

a) Let us suppose that the number of children in 

69 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

the A and B cycles shows itself to be increasing rapidly, 
or to be greatly above the average in those ages. How 
soon should there be modifications and what should 
they be ? These questions must be answered partly with 
reference to the housing of the school. If there is a 
separate primary room and one large enough, Teacher 
B should be able to handle as many as forty pupils in 
her cycle. If the housing conditions of the school are 
inadequate it may be wiser to secure another teacher, 
to divide the sexes, and to run on the B2 plan. Prefer- 
able to this, however, would be the solution of resolving 
Cycles A and B into three two-year cycles, and put the 
school on the a, o, c, C, D, E plan. 

b) In case the number of pupils in Cycles C and D 
is unusually large, it is worth every effort to develop 
C and D into A, e, f (i. e., three two-year cycles) by 
securing another teacher. Teachers in the C and D 
cycles cannot work to advantage with over ten pupils 
each, unless there are separate rooms. Even then it is 
not wise to exceed fifteen in a class. All things con- 
sidered, an A, B, A, e, f, E school is a very workable 
proposition. It can probably be used up to a maximum 
of about eighty pupils. But at about this point would 
come the questions as to duplicating one or more of 
teachers A y e, /, or E. 

c) Supposing in the A cycle there were no four- 
year-old children in some particular year. It would then 
be in order to begin the cycle with year II or the five- 
year-old work. This would, in effect, change Cycle A 
for the time being into a two-year cycle, a modified 
form of Cycle o } or b (x), with the standard set back, as 
described later on, page 74. 

70 



Modifications of Standard Cycles for Local Needs 

2. Doubling Cycles of the Same Kind 

a) This always occurs, and entirely naturally, when- 
ever it seems desirable to separate the sexes. Supposing 
in the standard three-year-cycle school we desire to 
separate the sexes between the ages of 13 and 15. We 
shall then have an A, B, C, D2, E school, which we may 
illustrate thus : 




mixed 



IDixed 



Figure 8. Doubling Cycle D. 



b) Or it may even be considered desirable to begin 
the sex division at 10 years, making an A, B, 02, D2, E 
school, illustrated thus: 




Girfs 
Figure 9. Doubling Cycles C and D. 



This latter is probably a very usual method of grouping 
a school of sixty-five to seventy pupils. But it is a 
question whether the disposition of the two extra teach- 

71 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

ers could not be more wisely effected in building up a 
two-year-cycle plan beginning with B. 

Yet it is entirely possible that the age range in any 
school may not be evenly distributed through all the 
grades, but there may be at some age-point a surplus of 
pupils. This is the point at which it may be necessary 
to double the cycle. But, before doing so, it should 
always be considered whether the pressure would be 
relieved by using the extra teacher to make three two- 
year cycles out of the two three-year cycles, as explained 
on pages 20-22. This latter is the better policy, provided 
it relieves the congestion. 

c) Probably the most frequent cases of double cycles 
will be in schools of the mixed cycle type, as they grow 
larger — as for instance an A, B, d, e, f, E school may 
easily grow to the A, B, d2> e, f, E form, or to A, B, 
d% e2, /2, E. 

B. Less Advisable Modifications 

3. Eliminating a Cycle 

This move, while contrary to the best interests of the 
school, may be absolutely necessary on account of a lack 
of teachers. There seem to be a great many schools, so 
far as present statistics go, which are running with 
four teachers, where under standard conditions there 
should be five. Yet it may be impossible to obtain the 
fifth teacher. In this situation, one should first con- 
sider whether the plan suggested under Chapter XV 
would not apply. If this is out of the question, there 
are several types of a modified four-cycle arrangement 
which may be considered. 

72 



Modifications of Standard Cycles for Local Needs 

(a) Eliminating Cycle A 

This is done by combining it with B. The result is 
to produce the old-fashioned "infant class" or primary 
department, with no special work for the kindergarten 
section. Probably this is the most common method of 
meeting the problem. Perhaps, on the whole, it dis- 
regards the special needs of a smaller number than other 
plans, namely, the littlest folk of four and five years. 
If it seems the best plan to be pursued, it may be best 
carried out under the arrangement to be described 
presently in the section on "Dropping the Standard". 
There are, however, other ways of meeting the problem, 
as for instance the following: 

(6) Eliminating Cycle E 

Whether this is advisable depends very much on 
the number of older pupils in the school. If these are 
very few, then Cycle D may be extended to four years, 
so as to include the sixteen-year-olds, and Teacher E 
may be spared for a lower cycle so that A may still 
be maintained separately from B. The school would 
then be described as A, B, C, D (x). This is always an 
unfortunate necessity, as the upper end of the school 
is usually the more difficult to hold together, and the 
pupils of sixteen, seventeen, and upward dislike to be 
put into lower grades. The maintenance of Cycle E, 
so long as there are pupils enough to form a reasonably 
good class, is most emphatically to be commended, for 
the sake of the school as a whole, and the senior depart- 
ment in particular. 

(c) Eliminating Other Cycles 

In any three-year-cycle school it is not probable 

73 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

that any other cycle than the first or last could be 
eliminated. In a two-year-cycle school, however, it 
might happen by way of exception that there were no 
pupils within the age or grade limits of some particular 
cycle. Naturally, then, this cycle would be in abey- 
ance until pupils of that age or grade arrived, by means 
of promotion on the scene. It might easily happen, also 
that a two-year-cycle school would be of the o, c } d, e, 
f> 9 type, or even the o, c, d, e, f type, if the youngest 
or oldest pupils, or both, were lacking. 

4. Dropping the Standard a Year 

a) It is quite possible that there may be districts 
or localities, through so large a country, where the 
mass of pupils are in their development somewhat 
behind the standard grades used elsewhere. When cer- 
tain lessons are affixed in standard fashion to particular 
grades or years, it may happen, in a mining district for 
instance, that the standard set was fully a year in 
advance of tKe capacity of the pupils in that district. 
Is it necessary to change the standard? Not at all. 
It is only necessary to understand that the age limits 
in the different cycles have been lowered by one year. 
Exactly the same formula, with a note added concerning 
the dropping of the age limits, will describe the school. 
Exactly the same teaching material may be used as is 
used by the standard elsewhere, only beginning one year 
earlier. Thus, for instance, for year 9 the standard 
material for year 8 is substituted. 

b) Or it may be that in some school local circum- 
stances may best be met by dropping, not the whole 

74 



Modifications of Standard Cycles for Local Needs 

standard, but the standard of some one cycle. This, of 
course, means that somewhere in the sequence one of 
the prescribed courses is abandoned. And yet there may 
be circumstances under which this will be thoroughly 
justified. 

Consider, for instance, the case discussed on page 
73, where only four teachers could be had and the 
pupils of kindergarten age were a negligible factor. 
In such a situation it may be advisable to eliminate 
Cycle A, set the standard back a year in Cycle B, and 
have a school on the Bx, C, D, E plan with four teach- 
ers. Such a school would admit such four-, five-, and 
six-year-olds as there were to Cycle Bx, as being a 
negligible factor. They would stay in this cycle until 
they were in their ninth year. The course of study set 
for the ninth year in the regular standard would have 
to be omitted, since Cycle Bx would begin its work (by 
way of exception) with the six-year-old material. This, 
of course, is unfortunate. It would be avoided by secur- 
ing another teacher to take the regular Cycle A work, 
and so run B on the standard plan instead of making 
it Bx. 

c) Any abnormality of a particular cycle which 
changes or displaces the regularly understood cycle 
arrangement can be accommodated in the system as an 
exception, and in each such case the cycle in question 
should be marked with an (x) to indicate its abnor- 
mality; as, for instance, a four-year-cycle on the senior 
end of a school may be marked Dx. In most cases, how- 
ever, it is understood that x added to the sign of a cycle 
means that the standard has been dropped a year. 



75 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

5. The Including of "Bible Classes" 

In many parishes there are study groups, sometimes 
of older pupils, sometimes of adults loosely attached to 
the school system, or even meeting at different hours. 
It is entirely possible to include such cases under the 
standard plan by assigning to them the letter F. If 
the class be of men or older boys, it would be indicated 
as F(m), the Men's Bible Class. If of older girls or 
women it would be F(w), the Women's Bible Class. 
It would be understood that Teacher F was in charge 
of a group beyond the age limit of the normal type 
(i. e., nineteen or beyond), and taught subjects arranged 
without any particular reference to the standard or to 
any cycle plan. There are probably many schools which 
would in this way be represented as B, C, D, F(m), 
F(w), or some similar formula. 



76 



CHAPTER XIII 
Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

Teacher training for the cycle school was described 
in general in Chapter VI. In order, however, that the 
system may be thoroughly understood, the following 
illustrations are given in explicit detail to show how 
the training of separate teachers (or teachers of the 
same cycle taken together) would be carried out. It 
has not been thought necessary to develop the plan for 
every teacher involved, but Teacher B and Teacher D 
have been selected as examples of the three-year-cycle 
type, and Teacher b and Teacher d as examples of the 
two-year-cycle type. 

A careful study of the method suggested for these 
two types will easily enable the trainer to set up a plan 
for all the teachers engaged in the school. 

1. The Training of Teacher B 

Teacher B meets the trainer by appointment some 
evening or afternoon in early September, before school 
begins. She is to teach Course IV this year and has 
already received her material two months before. Dur- 
ing the interval she has read through the Teacher's 
Manual and examined the accessory material. 

More than this, Teacher B, along with A, C, D, and 

77 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

E, has already had a preliminary meeting with the 
trainer in which all five were introduced in a general 
way to some of the special features of the Christian 
Nurture Series. At that time the trainer read through 
with them the general description of the series con- 
tained in each Manual, laying especial emphasis on the 
five separate aims which each teacher is to bring 
together in her (or his) work. (A reading of Dr. 
Gardner's The Children's Challenge to the Church, 
Young Churchman Co., 40c, paper; 75c, cloth; and of pp. 
29-34 in Church Ideals in Education, published by the 
General Board of Eeligious Education, $1.00, will assist 
the trainer to catch this point.) This preliminary meet- 
ing will also discuss the practical side of a) the plan for 
parental cooperation which the school and parish will 
back, in connection with the new series ; and b) the plan 
for training the child in Christian giving, which the 
school is to try out in connection with the Nurture 
Courses. The rector, of course (and the superintend- 
ent, if he be not the rector), must be brought into 
consultation on these points, and a definite understand- 
ing had concerning the promotion of them. 

There are two important things to be accomplished 
at this first meeting, and a start to be made on a third. 

1. Does Teacher B understand what is to be gotten 
out of Course 4 ? Note the Foreword of that particular 
course, especially the discussion of "Duty", and also the 
Programme for the Year. It is of great importance 
that the young child should be taught what God wants 
him to do. Note the way in which this is to be done. 
(See Schedule of Course.) Each of the Ten Command- 
ments is illustrated by several stories. The two groups 

78 



Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

of Commandments are brought together under the 
heads of Duty toward God and Duty toward Neighbor, 
and the whole finally gathered up under the Summary 
of the Law. It is not so much the wording of the 
Commandments as the ideas and duties which need to be 
emphasized. 

2. Now proceed to the table of Correlations, and 
see that Teacher B grasps the idea of working in the 
"Five-fold aim". Go over, in particular, the Correla- 
tions for the first five lessons. This may take fifteen to 
twenty-five minutes. 

3. During the fall Teacher B should be making a 
special study of the art of story-telling. Hand her (or 
him) the little book by E. P. St. John entitled Stories 
and Story Telling (Pilgrim Press, 60c). 

Bun over briefly the first chapter, calling especial 
attention to the "Hints for First Hand Study", and 
ask for similar experiences in Teacher B's life. Ask 
Teacher B to read Chapter I over again carefully, and 
add Chapter II, making some notes of her (or his) own 
on the "Hints for First Hand Study" of Chapter II 
for you to see a month hence. With this much on the 
pedagogical side, pass to the consideration of the first 
five lessons in Course 4. 

These lessons involve five separate stories from the 
Old Testament, namely: 

1. The Giving of the Law at Sinai. Ex. 19 : 16 to 

20:18; 24:3,4,7. 

2. Elijah's Sacrifice on Mt. Carmel. I Kings 18: 

1-40. 

3. The Healing of JSTaaman. II Kings 5 : 1-19. 

4. The Testing of Abraham. Gen. 22 : 1-19. 

79 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

5. The Worship of the Golden Calf. Ex. 24: 12-18; 
32:1-20. 

They are all familiar stories, likely to be well under- 
stood by most teachers. The text, therefore, will hardly 
need close study. What most deserves attention is (1) 
an understanding of primitive forms of Hebrew wor- 
ship; and (2) the significance of the sacred mountain. 
These topics will be treated in almost any book or 
article on Hebrew religion. The modern theories as to 
Mt. Sinai may also be examined. The teacher should, 
if possible, be provided with the first volume of The 
Historical Bible, by Kent (Scribner, $1.00), which fur- 
nishes many notes both for these and for subsequent 
stories from the Old Testament. 

The main point is to secure from each of the dif- 
ferent stories a strong sense of our dependence on God 
and the need of worshipping Him. The trainer should 
discuss with the teacher how this comes out in each of 
the stories, so as to be sure this point will be made in 
the class work. It may be wise to select one of the 
stories to go over in detail, both for the application of 
this point and also to discover whether the teacher 
understands the dramatic analysis or movement of the 
story, and can make the desired points successfully. 
In this work it will be desirable to consult and com- 
pare the "story" as told in the Manual. 

Finally, it will be important to look at the different 
"Correlations" suggested for each lesson in the schedule 
found in the Manual (or in the introductory material 
to each lesson). Does Teacher B understand how and 
when each of these different points is to be brought in, 
and how it is to be treated ? It will be noted that every 

80 



Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

lesson in the Manual indicates the point at which the 
various correlations are to be introduced in teaching, 
but it is important that teacher and trainer should talk 
over the practical details, which of necessity differ in 
every parish. Providing a little remembrance of flow- 
ers, for instance, to be taken to a sick person, or plan- 
ning to attend a certain service, or the sending of a 
missionary offering, all need definite direction on the 
spot. 

In conclusion, the arrangement is made with Teacher 
B for another meeting with the trainer some four or 
five weeks hence. The teacher is asked to keep brief 
notes on her experience with the class during the inter- 
val: what worked well, and what did not; new ideas 
which came in the working out of the plans, special 
needs unforeseen, etc. All this should be made matter 
of record, partly in view of another month's meeting, 
and partly with reference to the next time the course is 
taught. 

Teacher B will also be asked to look over, before 
coming to the next meeting, but merely Chapter II in 
the book on Story Telling, but also the next five stories 
in the Schedule of Course 4. This second meeting with 
Teacher B will presumably be of much greater interest 
than the first, inasmuch as an actual experience with 
the class in the meanwhile will start many suggestions 
regarding both material and method. 

In the course of the year, then, the trainer may 
expect to have eight or nine meetings of this sort with 
Teacher B. This will permit of covering most of the 
thirteen chapters of St. John's book on story telling 
(IX, X, and XIII may be omitted, if necessary). It 

81 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

will also permit a careful survey of the actual lessons in 
Course 4 and a continuous study of the experience with 
the class. The notes applying to this last matter should 
be preserved in some permanent form and laid away 
with the Teacher's Manual for the next use of this 
course. 

2. The Training of Teacher D 

Teacher D is starting on Course 10, and has been 
reading through the Manual. The course begins in the 
Book of the Acts and continues through Church His- 
tory. Teacher D, therefore, must cultivate some famil- 
iarity with both these subjects, and at the same time 
have in hand considerable knowledge of how to deal 
with boys or girls during the period of early adoles- 
cence. This latter, however, can be acquired steadily 
all through the three years of the cycle, while the Acts 
and Church History, so far as needed, must be mastered 
this year. 

Spend the first half -hour of the first meeting be- 
tween the trainer and Teacher D as follows: 

a. Give ten minutes to a discussion of the aim and 
method of Course 10. It reveals the Life of Christ 
wrought into an Organization (the Church), the very 
same organization which Teacher D's pupils have 
already accepted or are about to accept, in Confirmation. 
The point is to make them feel how this Organization 
(which they partake of with the same zest that early 
adolescence bestows on any kind of "getting together") 
started from the Christ of history, whose footsteps they 
followed the year just passed, and has carried His work 
on unbroken until it has reached them in their own 

82 



Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

parish church. They are to feel the chain of living 
experience, beginning with the early Apostles and St. 
Paul, and reaching up to modern characters of whom 
we have all known something. 

b. Spend the next twenty minutes in looking over 
Lesson VI of Weigle's The Pupil and the Teacher (of 
which a copy has previously been placed in Teacher D's 
hands, with a request to read this chapter). The ques- 
tions at the end of the chapter may be taken up and 
answered from observations made concerning the boys 
or girls in Teacher D's class. Very likely they will 
suggest some new plan for the class or some new method 
in the teaching. The matter of Confirmation will prob- 
ably come up. Assign Chapter VII for a month hence, 
and advise the gradual reading of Part II. (When 
Weigle's book is covered, there remain several valuable 
books of special treatment of this "teen age", such as 
The "Teen" Age, by Alexander; The Boy Scout Move- 
ment Aplied by the Church, Richardson and Loomis; 
The Girl in her Teens, Slattery; Girlhood and Char- 
acter, Moxcey. 

c. Devote the hour which now remains to the study 
of those sections of the Gospels and the Book of the 
Acts covered by the first five lessons of Course 10 
(namely the first eight chapters). The teacher should 
have as a handbook the Manual of Acts of Apostles, by 
Stokoe (Oxford — Clarendon Press). Call Teacher D's 
attention to the analysis on one of the introductory 
pages, entitled "Contents of the First Days of the 
Church", and note the headings given, writing them, 
perhaps, on the margin of Teacher D's Bible. Ask 
Teacher D to read each week in Stokoe the section cor- 

83 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

responding to the text covered by the lesson for that 
week. (Or, if the teacher is provided with Volume V 
of Kent's Historical Bible, as recommended by the 
course, the same general method may be pursued with 
that book.) 

Passing now to some details, consider : 

1. In preparation for Lesson 1 — 

A general outline of the Life of Christ. This should 
be in very brief form. 

2. In preparation for Lesson 2 — 

Go over the list of the names of the Twelve Apos- 
tles, noting in a few words the life and character- 
istics of each of those who are better known. 

3. In preparation for Lessons 3, 4, 5 — 

Discuss briefly the thought of the Holy Spirit 

a) As continuing the teaching work of Christ. 

b) As experienced in the early chapters of the 

Book of the Acts. 

c) As looked to and prayed for in the actual life 

of the individual and the Church. (Whit- 
sunday, Confirmation, Ordination, Hymns 
about the Holy Spirit.) 

d. In making appointment with Teacher D for the 
next monthly meeting ask for preparation in Weigle and 
Stokoe or Kent, and for notes to be kept, in the interim, 
concerning the working out of the lessons in the class. 
Encourage Teacher D to do as much reading as possible 
in the various recommended books. 

After fourteen Sundays on the history in the Book 
of the Acts, Course 10 passes into Church History, and 
Teacher D will need to read somewhat more extensively. 
The two books mentioned in the Manual, Farrar's Lives 

84 



Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

of the Fathers, and Walker's Great Men of the Christian 
Church, should, if possible, be accessible. Articles on 
the characters mentioned can be found in most ency- 
clopedias. The rector may be disposed to loan Teacher 
D from time to time some volume in Church History 
covering the needed period. The conferences between 
the trainer and Teacher D after the third meeting will, 
therefore, tend more and more toward a discussion of 
the different biographies for the ensuing month, and the 
points in each character worthy of emphasis in the 
class. 

3. The Training of Teacher b 

The work of Teacher b is in many ways similar to 
that of Teacher B, of whose training an illustration has 
already been given. But Teacher b begins a grade 
lower in the school than B, using in the first year of her 
cycle Course 3. 

We shall assume that Teacher b has already attended 
the preliminary meeting of all the teachers at which 
the general topics related to the Christian Nurture 
Courses are discussed, and pass at once to the work to 
be done at the first monthly meeting between Teacher b 
and the trainer. 

First, it will be necessary to consider the special 
aims of Course 3. Fifteen minutes will be devoted to 
reviewing with the teacher the general description (in 
the Manual of Course 3) of the "Church Pathway" 
courses, and the special feature of Course 3 in par- 
ticular. Teacher b has already considered this as she 
looked over her Manual in the last month or so. But 
a review with emphasis on special points, and with 

85 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

application to the peculiar circumstances of the local 
school, is always in order. The schedule of lessons will 
be examined again to secure the general ideas back of 
the stories, and the columns of Correlations covering 
Church Loyalty, Devotional Life, and Christian Service 
will be glanced through. 

The second fifteen minutes will be spent on Stories 
and Story -Telling, by E. P. St. John, after the plan 
proposed for Teacher B. 

Then comes the examination of the material covered 
in the first five lessons of Course 3. These lessons 
embrace the two ideas of God's creative power, and 
His protective care of men. There are four stories 
involved : 

The Creation Story. Gen. 1. 

St. Peter and the Angel. Acts 12 : 1-17. 

Elijah Eed by the Eavens. I Kings 17: 1-6. 

Daniel in the Lion's Den. Dan. 6 : 1-23. 
It will be well to deal with all these stories, as the 
Manual deals with that of Daniel, and help Teacher b 
to work out for each of the first three a succession of 
"mental pictures". Doing this will lead to a survey of 
the Biblical material, and to observing how that Biblical 
material is handled in the story for each lesson given 
in the Manual. Mrs. Houghton's discussion of the 
Creation Story in her book, Telling Bible Stories, will 
be helpful reading to the teacher, if the book can be 
had or borrowed. In the course of the analysis of the 
stories it will not be difficult for the trainer to discover 
whether the teacher possesses the requisite knowledge 
concerning the details of the different narratives. In 
the course of the hour spent in this work note should be 

86 



Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

made of the several correlations needed and practical 
plans suggested for working them out. 

Teacher b should be encouraged, in addition to the 
reading of St. John's book on story telling, to make a 
careful study (unless this has already been done) of 
primary teaching, its principles and methods. God's 
Little Children, by Hartford (N. Y. S. S. Commission, 
75c), will be helpful here, also The Elementary Division 
by Bryner (Eevell, 50c). Chapters II to IV and XII 
to XVIII of Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher (Doran, 
50c), are also in point. This work can be so distributed 
over the two years as to be reviewed in the section of 
time devoted at each appointment to pedagogical work. 

The Christian Year is another subject which Teacher 
b should understand. Hints for its proper appreciation 
may be found in the study outlines furnished on this 
subject by the General Board (Standard Course, Chris- 
tian Year) and also in Dr. Gwynne's manual on The 
Christian Year (Longmans, Green, & Co., 75c). 

4. The Training of Teacher d 

The work of this teacher with Courses 7 and 8, and 
ages 10-11 (or Grades V and VI), calls for a knowl- 
edge of child life in the younger junior period, for a 
good understanding of Church Worship, and a fair 
knowledge of Biblical history. 

It is understood that Teacher b will have gone over, 
in the general meeting with the other teachers, the 
special features of the Nurture Courses as a whole. 
Our effort now will be to describe the conduct of the 
first monthly conference between Teacher d and the 

87 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

trainer. The time of this meeting should be occupied 
somewhat as follows: 

a) Fifteen minutes may be spent in discussing the 
special aim of Course 7, the teacher having previously 
become thoroughly familiar with the Manual. There 
are two important objects in Course 7. The first is to 
introduce the child to the more general feelings of wor- 
ship through an understanding of the Christian Year. 
Secondly, while teaching the Christian Year the teacher 
familiarizes the child with the main outlines and events 
of the Life of our Lord, and with His place in the 
experience of men. Both of these objects are funda- 
mentally important at this period of a child's develop- 
ment, and underlie his further religious development. 
But both need to be treated in simple outline fashion, 
endeavoring to have the main impression a forceful one 
upon the emotional nature of the child, rather than a 
detailed delivery of facts to his intellect. The teacher's 
attention should be especially called to the way in which 
the significance of the Church seasons is developed in 
the table of correlations. Review also the special direc- 
tions to the teacher in Course 7. 

b) The second fifteen minutes may be wisely spent 
in beginning a special study of the junior period of 
child life. Weigle's Pupil and Teacher will offer an 
excellent basis for a start in this direction. Read over 
with the teacher pages 38 to 42 in Chapter V, and 
then, on the basis of the actual children in Teacher d's 
class, discuss the first five questions at the end of the 
chapter. 

It may be wise to spread the discussion of this chap- 
ter over three conferences provided points of practical 

88 



Some Illustrations of Teacher Training 

interest are brought up. Meanwhile the teacher can be 
asked to read ahead Chapters VIII to XI and then 
forward in Part II, at least a chapter a week. 

There are one or two other books which will prove 
decidedly useful for a teacher of this age of children, 
provided there is time for it and the books can be had. 
These books are as follows : 

The Individual in the Making. Kirkpatrick. 
Habit and Habit Formation. Howe. 

As there are two years in this teacher's cycle, a plan 
for this reading can be made covering that amount of 
time. 

c) The next hour of the conference with Teacher d 
should be spent upon the subject matter of Course 7. 
The opening lessons in this course need a background of 
study in the life and times of Isaiah and especially 
Jeremiah. The trainer should give some information in 
regard to the books of Jeremiah and Isaiah and some 
brief outline of the history during the lifetimes of the 
two. Neither prophet is apt to be well known, as an 
individual, to the average teacher. During this part of 
the conference, therefore, most of the work will have to 
be done by the trainer, but with especial reference to the 
Bible text and the particular incidents involved in the 
coming lessons, namely: 

The Invasion of Sennacherib. Is. 36-37. 

The Discovery of Deuteronomy. II Kings 22-23. 

Jeremiah's Sermon on Shiloh. Jer. 7. 

The Story of the Yoke. Jer. 27-28. 
The teacher may be asked to read articles in a Bible 
dictionary or an encyclopedia on Isaiah and Jeremiah. 
Chamberlain's The Hebrew Prophets (Chicago Univ. 

89 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

Press, $1) will be useful if obtainable. These readings 
may be spread over the first three conferences. 

At Lesson 15 the subject matter of the course passes 
over to the Life of Christ, and the teacher may wisely 
be asked to read some short and vivid presentation of 
this subject. Stalker's Life of Christ will be suitable. 
The aim is not to get details, but larger impressions. 

Especially during the fall (or the first fourteen les- 
sons), the trainer's attention may best be given to 
making sure that the teacher has an adequate historical 
background for each particular lesson. Suggestions as 
to the practical carrying out of the details required by 
the correlations will frequently be necessary. Advice 
also as to the omission of the less essential items of the 
lessons will be needed if they prove too long for the 
teaching period. The analysis of the lessons in the 
Manual should be carefully considered. 

d) During the second year of this cycle especial 
attention, in the subject matter of the lessons, must be 
given to two subjects: 1. The development of the 
child's sense of worship, along the lines of the Prayer 
Book, and 2. The history covered by the Old Testa- 
ment. Helpful reading along these two lines will be 
furnished by : 

1. Our Way of Worship. Lee (Chiefly the latter half). 
The Church's Book of Days. Longmans. 

Both of these are published in England by the 
National Society's Depository, but can be had here 
through the N. Y. S. S. Commission, 73 Fifth Ave., 
New York. 

2. Old Testament History and Literature. Alford. 

Longmans, Green, & Co. 

90 



CHAPTER XIV 

Studying the Small School 

Just because the school is small is the best reason 
in the world for giving it a deal of study. The large 
school falls into lines of organization which have long 
been observed and considered. The small school presents 
problems of administration which are quite different. 
It is full of possible experiment and its combinations 
of method are manifold. As a type of school it has 
never yet been adequately studied or experimented with. 
Instead of taking it as a type by itself for independent 
experiment and construction, the tendency has been to 
handle it as nearly like a large school as is possible. 
The results of this tendency have been altogether 
unfortunate. 

The persons who should be especially interested in 
the study of the small school are, first, the rector or 
superintendent who runs it, and secondly, the diocesan 
Board of Religious Education, in whose field the small 
school constitutes so large and important a factor. It 
is the belief of the writer that Boards of Religious 
Education should isolate special problems which are 
vital to the welfare of the Church and give them tech- 
nical investigation and study, until certain definite 
recommendations can be made and experiments con- 

91 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

ducted on the basis of them in sufficient number and 
extent to establish principles and methods. The small 
school constitutes just such a problem of diocesan 
administration. The data should be secured, the prob- 
lem discussed, and definite suggestions experimented 
with until certain results can be obtained, and a typical 
system established. 

/. The Small School Studied by 
Its Superintendent 

a) The Problem of Teachers 

Inasmuch as in the organization and success of the 
small school so much depends upon the teaching force, 
its number and quality, this problem should have the 
right of way. It may be analyzed and examined as 
follows : 

1. Can the number of teachers be increased? 

The discussion of the cycle system shows how great 
an advantage is secured each time the addition of one 
more teacher makes it possible to resolve two cycles 
into three. The superintendent should have this con- 
stantly on his mind. Can I get one more, he asks 
himself as he thinks over the adult members of the 
congregation? "Seek and ye shall find" is true here. 
Sometimes it is a new parishioner who has come to the 
parish and is as yet unclaimed as a worker; sometimes 
it is an old friend released by circumstances from 
previous responsibilities. ]STow and then it is an older 
daughter or son returned from school or college to 
settle down at home once more. The watchful super- 
intendent gets his appeal in first. It is personal and 
determined — and he succeeds (or else he tries again). 

92 



Studying the Small School 

Often he looks at some older boy or girl in the school 
classes and debates whether this one or that should be 
lifted out of the position of student and installed as 
teacher. They are very tempting objects to the super- 
intendent, these bright-faced young people with all the 
enthusiasm of youth. Yes, those things are assets, 
demeanor and enthusiasm. But there are other matters 
to be considered, such as stability, leadership, ripeness 
of judgment, depth of Christian devotion. Maturity of 
experience is valuable, but sometimes real qualities of 
leadership will atone for deficiencies in age. Good com- 
mon sense and reliability will sometimes suffice where 
backed by intelligence and interest. Some willingness 
to study and readiness to give earnest work there must 
be, as compensatory qualities. But with these guard- 
ing elements and a careful supervision by superintend- 
ent or trainer or both there are many sober-minded, 
earnest young people of eighteen (seldom should they 
be taken younger) who will develop excellent teaching 
ability. 

Occasionally, perhaps not often, someone deeply 
interested may be brought in from the outside, a mem- 
ber of a neighboring parish not vitally needed there, 
coming with the knowledge and consent of the rector of 
that parish. Such persons are occasionally brought by 
a direct appeal on the ground of an urgent need in a 
hard field. 

2. Can the capacities of the existing staff of teach- 
ers be improved ? 

Generally there is opportunity for this to be done 
in one way or another. The most thorough way is that 

93 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

described under the section on Training the Teacher. 
Other methods are as follows: 

a) Secure some book which most of the teachers 
should read. Paste a notice in the front or back of it 
indicating your desire that it should be read; stating 
how long the book may be kept by any one teacher 
(two weeks, or three, according to the size), requesting 
each teacher, as the book is finished, to affix her or his 
signature beneath the notice, and hand it on to another 
teacher, the book to come back finally to the rector or 
trainer, to be put into the permanent training library 
of the school (unless the book belongs personally to the 
rector). Several books each year can be accomplished 
by this method, if they are not too bulky or too severe. 

b) Every effort should be made to get the teachers, 
once or twice a year at least, to attend some Sunday 
School meeting of the local district. It is perfectly 
true that such meetings may or may not hit the exact 
point of need for the teachers of a given school; yet 
the stimulus of common interests and aims is there 
and the habit of attendance brings its reward in indirect 
ways. 

c) In some localities it is possible to see that some 
one teacher in the small school is sent to a summer 
school where Sunday School methods are handled. The 
money cost of such an experience is an investment very 
much worth while for the small school. Perhaps, by 
joint effort of the teacher, the Sunday School treasury, 
the Church, or some interested person outside, the 
necessary funds for transportation and board can be 
secured. The teacher goes, agreeing to bring back to 
the school the best things said and done, the new 

94 



Studying the Small School 

methods, the inspirational addresses. From such an 
experience there will be a sure return. 

d) At an occasional meeting of the teachers' group, 
held, say, quarterly, for the discussion of the welfare 
of the school, the trainer or the rector may take up, 
after the business is over, the discussion of some topic 
germane to the work of all the teachers : how to develop 
the devotional life of the pupils in our Sunday School; 
the best way of measuring the scholarship of our 
pupils; the newest books on Sunday School work with 
a brief message from each; the educational element in 
our festival observances for the school, etc. Little slips 
with three or four questions intended to draw out a 
statement of actual experience with the topic under 
discussion in class work may be prepared and sent 
beforehand to each teacher, requesting a brief answer. 
These help to stimulate discussion and to make each 
teacher contribute to the benefit of the rest. Problems 
and difficulties are aired, and new light and judgment 
result. 

3. Can we prepare teachers against a future need? 
This generally means, are there young men or women 
in the upper ranks of the school who, if their reading 
and experience were directed, could be gradually trained 
to take places in the future as teachers ? Or it may some- 
times mean, are there adult persons in the parish, not 
now thought of as teachers, or considering themselves 
able to teach, who could be brought to prepare them- 
selves ahead for such work? In either case one of the 
following suggestions may prove practicable: 

a) A corps of substitute teachers may be formed. 
In some schools the superintendent has at his command 

95 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

promises of occasional assistance for substitute work. 
Miss A is willing to be called on for work on the first 
Sunday of every month, if needed. Mr. will agree 
to come on the second Sunday, and so on. These per- 
sons may even be willing to come to the school on their 
appointed days to see whether they are needed. Each 
Sunday, then, there is someone to rely upon as an extra. 
The same plan may be put in practice with a few 
selected pupils in the oldest classes. Such persons will 
learn by experience something of what is needed for a 
teacher's equipment, and may be induced to go farther 
in preparation by the reading plan. 

b) The same plan for reading single books which 
has been described above may be brought into use here. 
Further, such persons may be given one after another 
the various courses (Manuals) in use in the school, and 
be asked to familiarize themselves with their method 
and contents. Parents whose children are studying a 
certain course may be asked to read along the lines of 
that course, and may ultimately be interested to essay 
the task of teaching. 

c) Mothers or fathers who are natively interested 
in studying the growth and development of their own 
children may often be brought to see how great a con- 
tribution they may make to the life of the parish by 
becoming teachers. A Mother's Club in the parish, or 
a Parents' Discussion Class, or some similar associa- 
tion drawn together within the parish group, may be 
used to prepare individuals to see a vision of service in 
the Sunday School. 

d) In directing the study of either young people 
or adults toward teaching, the assistance of the Corre- 

96 



Studying the Small School 

spondence Courses of the General Board of Keligious 
Education may prove helpful. Young people, especially, 
may be urged to take up some such course under the 
general supervision of the rector or trainer, with the 
promise of being given class work to do when their 
preparation has proceeded to a certain point. The new 
Partial Credit system, by which recognition can be 
obtained for work done after each five lessons are 
accomplished, may prove a stimulus. In such cases 
particular inquiry for information should be addressed 
to the Parochial Department of the General Board (289 
Fourth avenue, New York City) with a brief statement 
of the circumstances. 

4. The Problem of Cycles 

The best adjustment of cycles to suit the circum- 
stances of a given school should be a matter of careful 
study. The data for such study consist of the statistics 
relating the actual or possible attendance at the school, 
of observations made during the school sessions as to 
the capacity and gifts of the various teachers, of the 
calculated numbers of children in the different school 
grades, and of the fitness of the graded material in the 
different Nurture Courses to the children of that local- 
ity. The discussions in other parts of this present 
volume as to ways of modifying and adjusting cycles 
to the particular needs of any given school will show 
what the flexibility of the system is, and the different 
possible lines of adaptation. The following suggestions 
are worth the consideration of the rector or superin- 
tendent : 

97 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

A. The Value of Charting a School 

Every small school can easily be displayed to the 
eye on paper by the following device and method : 

a) Draw down the middle of a large sheet of paper 
an "age line", and divide it into quarter inches, each 
representing one year of a child's age. Emphasize the 
division between years 4 and 5, 10 and 11, 14 and 15, 
18 and 19. 

b) To the left of this line will be recorded the 
classes exclusively of girls, and to the right those of 
boys. A class will be indicated by drawing a semi- 
circle against this age line with the ends resting against 
the age limits of that class. If the class contains both 
boys and girls complete the circle on the opposite side 
of the line. 

c) Set inside each semi-circle, 1, the number of 
pupils of that sex in that class, and 2, the proper 
letter designating the cycle. Write against the outside 
of the semi-circle the name of the teacher. 

d) Sum up, at the bottom of the sheet, the statistics 
recorded on it. 

As an illustration, let us chart an imaginary school 
which shall have six teachers and fifty-four pupils and 
run on a mixed cycle plan. 

This chart brings to the eye at once several peculiar 
conditions, for example, (1) There are no girls in the 
school from eleven to fourteen years of age. (Were 
this a real school we should need to investigate the 
reason why.) (2) The unusual employment of three 
two-year cycles in the primary years when the upper 
half of the school is relatively undeveloped from the 

98 



Studying the Small School 

teaching standpoint. (3) The four-year cycle used with 
the older boys. 



G/r/s' side 



Boys' 57 de 



m?ss d. 



8 



D )4 



rrin D. 



rrin a 



10 



V c 


5 \ 


miss b. f 5 - 


6 1 


TTlhs 3. f 
V<3 


3 1 


4 




Tour Women Teachers - 22 Girts 


J2 Boys - Two men 7eackens 



Figure 10. A Six-Teacher Mixed Cycle School with 54 
Pupils. (Imaginary.) 

Instead of discussing further the chart of an imag- 
inary school, let us examine the chart of a real school, 
photographed from nature, as it were. But this school 



99 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 



is not organized on the cycle plan. The illustration 
may be all the more illuminating, however, on that very 
account, and comes nearer to the presently existing 
state of affairs. 



i 



14 



ffl-rss. IV [4 



t 



m>ss M. U <ly 



172 ? S3 X. 



12 



mr. P. 



8 mr. Y. 



3 Women Teachers- 17 Oirfs 



24 Boys — 2 Men Teach ers 



Total 41 PupiCs 
5 7e ackers 
Figure 11. Chart of an Actual School. 

This chart reveals certain curious and interesting 
conditions: 1. In spite of the relatively large number 



100 



Studying the Small School 

of boys in the school, there is a curious and unex- 
plained lapse in the boy line between the ages of eight 
and ten. 2. There are no older girls in the school. 
3. There are two unexpected intervals, the year eleven 
on the girls' side, and the year twelve on the boys' side. 
These may both be accidental, owing to the small num- 
ber in the school total. The effect of a boy choir in this 
parish in holding older boys in their connection with 
the school is noticeable. It is evident that too many 
age years are grouped together in the youngest class, 
and that a year might wisely be taken off this class on 
the upper end and given in charge of Miss H. It is 
plain, too, from the chart that Miss W and Mr. Y 
might each have worked in the same three-year age 
cycle with pupils from ten to thirteen, had the missing 
age intervals been represented by a child, and that 
Miss H might very probably have taken in charge any 
boys (had there been such) between the ages of seven 
and ten. In this way the road would have been quite 
open for the development of a three-year-cycle school 
(of the type A, B, 02, D). 

B. Readjustments of Cycles 

A school once charted can be studied with great 
clearness. The illustrations just given reveal quickly 
what the desirable changes are. Rearranging the teach- 
ing force with reference to the age years or grades to 
be covered may bring a much better balance to the 
school as a whole. Removing a teacher whose absence 
may be compensated for by joining the sexes in that 
cycle and putting this teacher at another point, where 
numbers are greater, or a two-year cycle much needed, 

101 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

may be moves for the benefit of the school. All such 
suggestions may easily be plotted on a chart (even 
when they are purely matters of hypothesis) and their 
effect considered in relation to the whole. The chart 
of a revised plan for the school will also explain in a 
brief way to the secretary what changes, if any, are 
necessary in his lists, to carry out the rearrangement. 

5. The Problems of Housing and Equipment 

The first of these is not easily solved in the small 
school, if difficulties prevail. Sometimes the church 
building is the only meeting place for the school. The 
problem is then how to place the classes so that they 
shall least interfere with each other, or have greatest 
facilities for themselves. Sometimes devices such as 
temporary curtains or screens can be planned. In this 
connection it is worth remembering that the blocking 
off of things which distract the eyes is more important 
than the removal of disturbing sounds. For this reason 
screening need only be carried a little above the head 
when seated, in order to be effective. Or the question 
may be how to provide in pews means for writing. This 
may lead to a provision of lapboards made of what 
is called "binder's board", or to temporary fixtures 
adjusted to the tops of the forward pews. 

Many other problems of housing may arise. Some 
will be solved by ingenuity in devices, some by rear- 
rangement of seating or rooms. But in these matters 
very great benefits can often be produced by a relatively 
small amount of thought. The principle is for the 
superintendent to put himself by imagination in place 
of the teacher, and consider how these various outward 

102 



Studying the Small School 

circumstances help or hinder the work of the session. 
The hindrances are easy to note by a thoughtful ob- 
servation of the class as the work is in process. The 
great aim is to eliminate circumstances which cost time 
during the teaching period without yielding a corre- 
sponding gain in convenience, or which could be taken 
care of at some other time. Passing from one room to 
another, or from the church to a vacant rectory room, 
might cost time, and yet the total gain in separation or 
isolation might more than compensate. 

As to equipment the problems are too many to illus- 
trate in detail, and too dependent on unknown financial 
conditions. These problems deserve careful attention 
however. The teacher should be taken into consulta- 
tion constantly. It heartens a teacher very considerably 
to feel that the leader of the school is thinking of her 
or his particular work, and carrying some of the diffi- 
culties. 



//. The Study of the Small Schools of a 

District or a Diocese by a Board of 

Religious Education 

1. The first desideratum here is knowledge of the 
actual situation. Diocesan journals usually carry data 
giving the number of teachers and pupils in the schools 
of the diocese. Select from such a list the schools hav- 
ing less than 100 pupils and send to the rectors or 
ministers of such parishes or missions an enquiry blank 
like the following: 

103 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

Inquiry Concerning the Smaller Schools 

Please return answers to 

( To be filled in stating name of the board member or 
officer conducting the investigation) 

This report is returned for S. S. 

Place 



Diocese , 

Name of person returning information 

Address 



1. Kindly fill out the following schedule, describing every 
class in your school, beginning with the youngest. 



Class 


Boys 


Girls 


Age 
extremes 


Teacher 
male female 


No. 1 






to 






No. 2 






to 






No. 3 






to 






No. 4 






to 






No. 5 






to 






No. 6 






to 






No. 7 






to 






No. 8 






to 







2. Please give your opinion or experience as to the advan- 
tage or disadvantage of combining both sexes in: 

a) Junior Classes (Age 9-14). 

b) Senior Classes (Age 14 up). 

104 



Studying the Small School 

3. How much can your school afford to spend a year per 

pupil on lesson material ? 

4. Do your teachers continue individually in charge of the 

same class, or are the children promoted from teacher 
to teacher? If the latter, how often? 

5. What is your experience in your present school as to the 

possibility of training your teachers? 

6. Please state the course of lessons taught by the teacher 

of each of the classes mentioned above, for a period of 

three years ( either the last three years, or the coming 

three). 

Kepeated requests may be necessary in some cases to 

secure the return of the information, but persistence 

and good nature ought in the end to get returns from 

about three-quarters. The rest will have to be "picked 

by hand". 

2. With data in hand the committee, or some mem- 
ber of it, begins to classify the situation. How are the 
four-teacher schools organized (or the five- teacher 
schools, and so on up) ? Are there any cycle plans in 
operation, any teacher training, etc ? What is the usual 
custom in regard to sexes, promotion, finance, etc. ? If 
certain schools are similar in some particulars, study 
the dissimilarity of other particulars, looking for rea- 
sons and results. 

3. The next step will probably be that of corre- 
spondence with certain individual schools in the search 
for details, the investigation of peculiar conditions, etc. 

4. The committee or board should now be ready to 
formulate certain theoretical plans for improvement, 
and to secure experimentation under them. Not all 
schools will assist in such experimental work. Be satis- 
fied at the start with such as will, and get new plans 
started under the best auspices possible. 

105 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

5. Meantime the whole field, as well as these par- 
ticular experiments, must be under observation. Statis- 
tics should be collected at regular intervals, growth 
carefully recorded, changes of various sorts noted, and 
the reasons ascertained, if possible. All this observation 
should be kept classified according to the different types 
of schools discovered in the field. One type can thus be 
compared with another, and deductions drawn as to ad- 
vantages or disadvantages. Five years of such careful 
watching, along with what experimentation can be 
secured, ought to yield valuable and significant data, on 
which important conclusions could be drawn. 

6. The data of such an observation, in so far as the 
cycle plan of organization is accepted and applied, could 
easily be kept in card catalogue form by using the 
formulae suggested. It would be perfectly possible to 
add by means of exponents to the various letters the 
number of pupils on the roll of each cycle, so that a 
single brief formula would express at once : 

1. The structure of the school, 

2. The number of teachers, 

3. The material in current use by each teacher, and 

4. The number of pupils under each teacher. 

For instance (A 11 , B 12 , O 10 , D 9 , E 15 ) I indicates a 
standard five-teacher three-year-cycle school of 57 pupils 
in which all the classes are using the first year of the 
standard material. Or (a 6 , b 8 , c 9 ) II, (C 10 , D 9 ) I, 
E 7 III, means a mixed-cycle school of 49 pupils and six 
teachers, with three two-year cycles using the second 
year of the standard material, two three-year cycles 
using the first year material, and one three-year cycle 
at work on the third year material. 

106 



Studying the Small School 

These refinements of the formula are of course not 
necessary to the adoption of a standard plan. They are 
introduced simply to make clear how many descriptive 
marks of the school might be recorded in exceedingly 
brief compass and with thorough accuracy by anyone 
interested. 

7. It would be of the utmost advantage in a diocesan 
situation to assign to some one person the duty of pro- 
moting the cycle plan among the smaller schools of the 
diocese. Such a person would 

a) Make a thorough study of the system herein pro- 

posed. If possible he should be in charge of a 
school carried on under the plan. 

b) Present the advantages of the cycle plan by ad- 

dresses at any diocesan gathering of a Sunday 
School nature. 

c) Make occasional visits to parishes or schools 

where it may be proposed to introduce the plan 
in order to discuss it on the ground. 

d) Act as a consultant, by mail, with those who may 

contemplate introducing the plan, advising 
them as to details, adjustments, etc. 



107 



CHAPTER XV 

Possible Lines of Special Experiment 

1. Experiments in Combining the Sexes 

It may be considered by some that the plan of com- 
bining the sexes in Cycles C, D, and E has not been 
sufficiently tried to render it advisable as a general prin- 
ciple. It would be worth while, in a diocese for instance, 
to encourage a number of experiments in such combina- 
tions, to keep careful observation of their results, classi- 
fied according to the ages of the pupils in each class or 
cycle. Only extended experiment can prove the case 
for or against a general principle of this sort. And the 
place where the experiment is most needed is above the 
age of ten. For beneath that age it has been a very 
general practice to combine the sexes, and without any 
apparent disadvantage. 

2. Economies in the Number of Teachers 

Even the statistics usually published in the diocesan 
journals will reveal no small number of cases in which 
the teaching problem must be handled with fewer than 
the five teachers normal to an A, B, C, D, E, school. 
The modifications of the cycle plan discussed elsewhere 
will suggest several ways in which a four-teacher school 
can be kept running on the cycle plan. But these sug- 

108 



Possible Lines of Special Experiment 

gestions all involve an elimination of some kind which 
is abnormal. Is there no other way out ? 

The discussion of what is known as the Gary system 
in public education suggests another principle seldom 
applied in Sunday School work which may prove of 
considerable value under certain conditions. 

One of the main principles in the Gary plan is that 
the same teacher shall do double work, or repeat the 
same lesson with a second and different group of chil- 
dren. In the ordinary Sunday School there is never a 
chance for a teacher to serve for more than one period, 
because all the exercises are simultaneous. The chil- 
dren all appear at the same hour, and the classes are 
held in the same period. This involves the use of as 
many teachers as there are classes. The custom is time- 
honored. But is it invariably necessary? True, there 
are not many persons engaged as Sunday Schol teachers 
who would usually be willing to teach more than once on 
Sunday. But is this, again, an absolute necessity? 
There may be circumstances where persons capable of 
teaching will be willing, for the good of the cause, even 
to teach for two periods on Sunday. If there be one 
such, it is plain that the effect will be that of an addi- 
tional teacher. Let us see what such a plan would 
accomplish. 

(a) Running a Standard A, B, C, D, E School with only 
Four Teachers 

Let the school open at 9 :45 a. m., with the pupils of 
cycles B, C, D, and E, present, and beginning their 
lesson period immediately after an opening collect. 

109 



Organizing the Smaller Sunday School 

At 10 :30 the pupils of Cycle A arrive and join in the 
general exercises which will last until 10 :45. 

At 10 :45 pupils of cycles B, C, D, E leave, presum- 
ably to attend Morning Service at 11. At this hour, 
then, Teacher B is released and takes charge of the 
Cycle A pupils whom she teaches until 11:30. 

At 11 :30 the pupils in Cycle A are either dismissed 
or kept under suitable oversight to await the conclu- 
sion of Morning Service and be taken home by parents 
or relatives. 

This plan uses the same teacher therefore for B and 
A. Most B teachers would be fairly competent to 
handle A children. This teacher is of course deprived 
of the opportunity of attending the 11 a. m. service. 
This is no doubt a loss, even if some other service in 
the day be attended. But Teacher B may be willing to 
make this sacrifice for the sake of the greater efficiency 
of the school. 

Cycles B and A are chosen as the proper ones to "go 
tandem", in this plan, rather than any other two because 
there is less harm than at any other age in keeping the 
four- and six-year-olds away from morning service. 

The same result could be reached on a similar prin- 
ciple if Cycle E met during the week with D as teacher, 
while A, B, C, D met on Sunday morning for a school 
on the usual plan. 

(b) Running a Standard A, B, C, D, E School with Three 
Teachers 

The same principle applied in a more extended way 
could be stretched to cover cases where only three 
teachers can be had. It is not probable, however, that 

110 



Possible Lines of Special Experiment 

many instances would be found where two teachers 
would be willing to teach for two consecutive periods 
without compensation. The plan however is as follows : 
9 :45 School opens for Cycles C, D, E. 
10 :30 Pupils in A and B arrive. 
10:30 to 10:45 General Exercises. 

10:45 to 11:30 Lesson period for Cycles A and B, 

which are taught respectively by 

Teachers C and D. 

It is quite possible that this plan would be more 

feasible if the school were held in the afternoon, and 

similar periods assigned, beginning perhaps at 2:45. 

This would also have the advantage of not depriving 

either teachers or pupils of the morning service. 

(c) Running a Standard A, B, C, D, E School with Two 
Regular Teachers 

This can only be accomplished in case some pupil or 
pupils in the E cycle can be set as teacher of the A 
children, while Teachers D and E serve again with B 
and C. The plan is as follows : 

9 :45 or 2 :45 School opens for D and E. 
10:30 or 3:30 Pupils in A, B, and C assemble. 
10:30-10:45 or 3:30-3:45 General Exercises. 
10:45-11:30 or 3:45-4:30 Lesson period for— 

A (taught by pupil from E). 
B and C (taught by Teachers 
D and E). 



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